Familie Mak van Waay voor een huis 1932

This is a snapshot of the Mak van Waay family in front of their house, caught on camera, and preserved as a small rectangular photograph. I wonder what it must have been like for the person behind the lens, framing their subjects just so, to capture something of their likeness. Was it posed or spontaneous? What were they thinking in the moments before they pressed the shutter? There's a formality to the clothes that everyone is wearing, which really speaks to the time the photo was taken. I can see the photographer considering light and shadow, and the textures of brick. I feel like painters are always trying to emulate this capture of light and texture. In fact, the camera liberated painting. We don't have to paint what we see anymore; photography does that job really well. Now painting can deal with emotion, process, and ideas instead. And who knows how many painters have looked at photographs and been inspired by what they have seen? It is a conversation that goes in all directions!