Interieur van de Hervormde Kerk te Oud-Vossemeer 1901

Here's a monochrome photograph of the interior of the Hervormde Kerk in Oud-Vossemeer made by an anonymous photographer. I can imagine them, under the cover of darkness, sneaking into the space to capture an image of it. The photograph has a shallow depth of field that gives the image a ghostly feel. The building itself is so beautiful, but it's the transience of the chandelier, hovering in the foreground, that really captures my attention. What kind of light did it cast? How did it make the shadows dance? I’m thinking about how artists make decisions about light, about surface, about what to show and what to leave out. The work also puts me in mind of the paintings of Agnes Martin. She was interested in spaces like this, and she was interested in the quietness of them, too. It feels like artists are always in conversation with each other, looking at what has been done and then figuring out what they want to do next.