Portret van een onbekende jongen met kruiwagen 1902 - 1914

This small photograph by Johannes Gerardus Kramer captures an unknown boy and his wheelbarrow in tones of sepia, somewhere, sometime in the late 19th century. I feel for this artist trying to capture the fleeting image of this boy standing by his wheelbarrow. Was he happy to be there or ready to move on to the next thing? What was it like to wrangle a kid who probably just wanted to be outside playing? It looks like the boy is pointing outwards, maybe thinking about where to next. The wheelbarrow is such a great prop – a symbol of work, but sized for a child. I wonder what he’s wheeling around. Is he on a pretend job or helping out for real? The moment is gone but preserved here in shades of brown, the boy forever young with his small but mighty wheelbarrow. Like a memory, it fades and shifts depending on how we look at it.