Portrait of Anneliese Hager 1953

Curator: Marta Hoepffner, born in 1912, created this intriguing piece, a photographic work titled "Portrait of Anneliese Hager," currently residing at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It strikes me as strangely intimate, almost fragile, with those delicate edges, like a torn piece of memory. The monochrome gives it such gravity. Curator: Hoepffner’s approach, with the photographic paper itself becoming part of the image, really challenges our perception. It's not just a picture; it’s an object. It's labour-intensive, a physical print. Editor: Yes, seeing those raw edges, I'm wondering, what's been discarded? Is it commentary on the disposability of images, even portraits? Curator: Or perhaps it's a celebration of the handmade, a pushback against mass production. It is, after all, a one-off, a unique object made of paper and light. There’s a beauty to that singular existence. Editor: Absolutely, and thinking about the darkroom, the alchemy involved – it’s almost a performance, a dance between the artist, the subject, and the materials themselves. I feel a sense of time suspended.