Twee portretten van prinses Juliana 1936

Franz Ziegler made these two photographic portraits of Princess Juliana at an unknown date, and with what looks like a pretty standard camera and darkroom setup. I like that he seems to be working with a very limited palette here, just shades of grey. The texture is interesting, it’s all about smooth surfaces and soft gradations. In the left-hand portrait, there is a lovely way the light falls across the fabric. The image feels like a kind of study in tonal variation. The princess is there, of course, but it's more of a jumping-off point for the photographer to start seeing tonally. In this sense it is a painterly photograph. This work puts me in mind of Gerhard Richter's photorealist paintings, which were made from photographs and explored similar ideas about the nature of representation. Ultimately, both artists invite us to think about the nature of seeing and how art can reveal the world in unexpected ways.