Pasangrahan in Grobogan en een fototoestel 1910 - 1928

This page from an anonymous album features two photographs, one of a building and another of a camera. There's a real sense of playful composition happening here, even if it's just on a small scale. The sepia tones throughout create a sense of nostalgia, but it’s the camera itself that really captures my attention. I love how it’s presented in a circular frame, almost like a little portrait. It makes me think about the layers of representation at play – the camera capturing the world, and then being captured itself. The way the photos are pasted onto the page, with delicate handwriting underneath, suggests a personal narrative, like a visual diary. It reminds me a bit of Joseph Cornell's boxes, how he arranged found objects to create these surreal, dreamlike worlds. Ultimately, it invites us to reflect on the act of looking and remembering, and how we construct our own stories through images.