Musical accompaniment: Dreaming by Al Bowlly

In Act 2 Scene 2 of Hamlet, the prince of Denmark says, There’s nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so. 

This phrase comes back to us again and again as we experience and react to life around us—and witness others reacting very differently. There’s always another way to look at something.

It’s also the phrase that popped into my mind when I saw this 1906 photograph called Villa Torlonia by the Austrian photographer Hugo Henneberg.

Cleveland Museum of Art

Villa Torlonia and its gardens are in Rome, though this photograph looks worlds away from the Eternal City. It was the solitary, pensive figure in the middle of the photograph who prompted Hamlet’s words in my mind.

What do you think of when you see this picture?