Dutch sandwich

by Eva Drbalova

I’ve called this photo ‘The Dutch Sandwich’. Bricks and bicycles. I’m proud of this photo because it captures balance on several levels. There’s symmetry, but also rhythm and repetition. And then there’s the story. Three people, one of whom is standing in a window, whilst the other two are positioned diagonally below, amongst the bicycles, almost unnoticed. A man and a woman.

Secretly, I always hope that those two have met in some way. And not just in my photograph.

What appeals to me about this image is that your eye keeps discovering something new. You can crop the photo in different ways, yet the composition remains balanced. There are multiple layers, both literally and figuratively. The fixed, solid structure of the cycle rack forms the backdrop, whilst the people are only part of it for a brief moment.

Actually, I’d love to print this photo in a very large format. So large that, depending on how close or far away you stand, you get a completely different experience. From a distance, you see the composition as a whole. Up close, you discover details you might not have noticed before. For me, that’s what makes a photo interesting: that it keeps surprising you, even if you’ve looked at it many times before.