Twee prentbriefkaarten van het bezoek van koningin Wilhelmina en prins Hendrik aan Friesland 1905

Here we have two old postcards stuck into a green album, commemorating Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Hendrik’s visit to Friesland. Anonymous. It's interesting, looking at these small images, how they try to capture the feeling of a big, important moment. The way the light falls, almost flatly, across the crowds and the boats, it gives everything this documentary feeling, like it really happened and we're seeing it. Look at the detail of the hats and the riggings. Photography, like painting, is all about decisions – what to include, what to leave out, what to focus on. And here, the choices create a sense of history, of being there even though we weren’t. These postcards remind me a little of Gerhard Richter’s photo paintings, that similar way of making a personal history into a shared experience. There's so much open for interpretation, maybe that's the point.