Maturenl 24 03 29 Irenka Photographing: My Old S New

In Zen aesthetics, there is wabi-sabi : the beauty of imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness. Irenka’s work is wabi-sabi with a Dutch precision—clean backgrounds, careful aperture, but always a wrinkle, a scratch, a faded thread left in focus. Why that date? It is early spring. In the Netherlands, March 24th can be cruel or kind—perhaps snowdrops and crocuses are up, but the wind still bites.

Go. Find something old. Photograph it as if it has just arrived from a distant star. maturenl 24 03 29 irenka photographing my old s new

Irenka sets it on the windowsill. She does not wind it. She photographs the face – not straight on, but from a low angle so the crack in the crystal catches a sliver of reflection. Then she photographs the back – the scratched steel, the faded engraving of a date. In Zen aesthetics, there is wabi-sabi : the

– She asks you to hold the watch. She photographs your hands, not the watch. You realize: the watch is old, your hands are older. But the new is the relationship between them – the way your thumb naturally rests on the crown, as if ready to wind it, even though you never do. It is early spring

– Over tea, you show her the object: your father’s wristwatch. It stopped running in 1997. You have kept it in a drawer. “It’s old and broken,” you say.