Portret van een meisje, staand in het gras met een paraplu 1882 - 1914

Curator: Welcome. Before us is "Portret van een meisje, staand in het gras met een paraplu" by Hendrik Jonker, a photograph dating sometime between 1882 and 1914. It resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: There's a certain gravity to it, don’t you think? The monochromatic palette lends a solemnity, but the soft focus and outdoor setting create a kind of dreamlike dissonance. And it's the way she is standing – I feel it in the materiality of her clothing, and those stiff shoes against the unruly field; labor certainly went into the preparation of that shot. Curator: Indeed. The portrait encapsulates formal concerns characteristic of plein-air photography. Notice how Jonker strategically positions his subject, structuring her within a clear compositional frame against the background of densely populated trees to create the photograph’s pictorial organization. Editor: Yet I find myself wondering about the labour conditions implicit here. The dress, likely handmade and certainly starched to stand so stiffly, speaks to an availability of resources for materials and time, for those willing to undertake such work. Who made it and how much was he or she paid? And even further, what technologies were necessary for the creation of the photo itself and the framing around the photograph – where did these materials come from, what are their origins, and who did the labor involved with extracting and processing them? It certainly affects how one “reads” that figure, holding a frilly parasol under diffuse light in what could very well be a work photo-shoot that's passed off as "naturalism." Curator: Your interpretation makes me question what's absent from view as much as what is present here in Jonker’s organization of elements. The tonal range and manipulation of the scene guide the gaze, offering a particular reading that excludes so much else. Editor: Exactly. This piece speaks to the artifice involved in any creation. But it also compels us to delve deeper. I find it powerful, actually, if slightly haunted, in its presentation of innocence amid obscured circumstance. Curator: Yes, it gives much to think about even after you look away, it persists within.