Jongen met vissen 1900 - 1922

This photo called, "Jongen met vissen" or "Boy with fish," was created by Robert Julius Boers. Stereoscopic photographs like this, made at the turn of the century, can be uncanny. You feel like you are *there*, a kind of time travel. It's a boy holding what appears to be several dead fish, maybe his catch of the day? He's outside a sparse-looking building, he is wearing white, and he is staring straight ahead, as if posing. It must have been quite a thing to be photographed then. It was a whole process. What was it like for the sitter? Did the photographer and sitter have a relationship? Was it a special event, or something more ordinary? The stillness of it implies a kind of solemn occasion. Artists learn from everything. We look at all kinds of pictures, including historical photographs, and they give us ideas, even now. It’s all one big conversation, everybody talking to each other across time.