Portret van een jongen met de duim in vest gehaakt 1864 - 1879

Curator: I find a wistful sort of charm in this gelatin-silver print. "Portret van een jongen met de duim in vest gehaakt," or "Portrait of a boy with thumb hooked in waistcoat." It's thought to have been captured between 1864 and 1879, the work of Leonard de Koningh. Editor: Melancholy. That’s the immediate feeling, wouldn't you say? His gaze drifting off to the side. Wonder what preoccupied his little-boy mind. A rather stiff pose, really. But oh, that light, those sepia tones! The hand tucked just so... Curator: There’s a formal rigidity, certainly, born out of the era. Photography was becoming more accessible but remained a momentous occasion. I'd hazard this was quite posed. It speaks to a middle-class aspiration, doesn’t it? Editor: Indeed, a carefully constructed image intended for display or keepsake. Yet that little crooked bow tie gives everything away. A perfectly imperfect moment. I almost hear the voice of his mother, instructing the hands "like that, that is perfect"... Curator: It captures a particular tension, this move between the societal demand for portraying perfection, and childhood realities always intruding, doesn't it? This gelatin silver print demonstrates evolving photographic techniques, using its sharp details and tonal range to really reveal so much character and, even more tellingly, context. Editor: Don't we always end up longing to reach back through time? These glimpses... I would have been completely lost to him. It almost feels... unfair. Curator: Well, the boy would have been a very different one than what we can glimpse. Consider this: It's that very longing that ensures these historical treasures survive, to tell these silent stories across generations. Editor: Yes. Each photo freezes, frames, some of the million unspoken possibilities contained in a life lived long before we were born. It makes the "after" matter so very much more, don't you think?