Gezicht op het eiland Ischia voor de kust van Napels 1966 - 1968

Norbert van den Berg made this photograph, "Gezicht op het eiland Ischia voor de kust van Napels" sometime in the middle of the 20th century with what looks like early colour film. The colour palette in this piece is muted, washed out almost, and that's really interesting. It gives the image a dream-like, slightly melancholic quality. The buildings on the cliffs are picked out with white, they almost look like architectural models, or the stage set for a play. They are sharply defined, and yet they sit within a landscape that is far more vague and indistinct. Look at the cloud, that mass of white hovering above the hills. Its softness contrasts with the sharp horizontal of the buildings. And then there’s the water, that deep blue-grey, almost mirroring the sky but with its own, unknowable depths. This image reminds me a little of the early seascapes of Gerhard Richter, but whereas Richter blurs his images, Van den Berg leaves them strangely in focus. Both artists ask questions about the nature of seeing, and experiencing a world in constant flux.