Thea en Joanna Diepenbrock c. 1895 - 1925

W.G. Hondius van den Broek made this portrait of Thea and Joanna Diepenbrock without fixing a specific date, but the way light and shadow interact in the piece suggests a dedication to process. The photograph appears as a reversed image, an x-ray of the very act of seeing. The stark contrast between the solid forms of the girls and the textured background evokes a sense of quiet observation. It's hard not to feel the surface here, that smooth plane that invites you to enter the image as it hovers between clarity and abstraction. The hand of one sister rests on the other's shoulder, the fingers appear to grasp but gently, offering both support and separation. Perhaps Hondius van den Broek looked to contemporaries like Julia Margaret Cameron, who also captured the innocence and enigma of childhood, but here there's a raw, almost dreamlike quality that leaves space for endless interpretations.