Albumblad zonder foto's c. 1875 - 1915

This is "Albumblad zonder foto's" by S. Moro. It's an album page made from an undetermined medium. What strikes you first is the ordered yet incomplete nature of this page. Two horizontal lines section off the space. The album is split into eight rectangular sections separated by vertical lines. The bareness and absence of photographs are striking and suggest themes of memory, loss, or potential. The inscriptions beneath each rectangle, such as "Indien (Bombay)" and "Sidney (Australia)," point to a structure that is suggestive. What is the function of these codes? They are visual markers that define the composition, acting almost as captions to unseen images. The work operates on a semiotic level, where the visible lines and words stand in for absent images, creating a dialogue between presence and absence. Consider how this composition might challenge fixed meanings. The album page does not deliver images, and the artist asks the viewer to reflect on the very structure of documentation and memory. The material absence prompts reflection on how we construct meaning.