Portret van twee baby's in een kinderwagen, waarschijnlijk de tweeling Ad en Johanna van der Kop after 1901

Willem Carel van der Kop made this photograph of two babies in a pram at an unknown date. It is a small, sepia-toned image. You can imagine Van der Kop peering into the pram, trying to frame these tiny humans! Maybe he had to wait for them to stop wriggling? I bet he was trying to capture some essence of their babyhood – the softness of their skin, the innocence in their eyes. Those bonnets are great: all lace and frills, like soft sculptures. I think about the other photographers, the people who were trying to pin down the ephemeral nature of existence. I see these photographers in conversation with painters. Each artist tries to capture the essence of a person. It's not just about likeness; it's about feeling, about being. Ultimately, art is about this shared inquiry. Each piece speaks to the other, and we, as viewers, get to listen in.