Groepsportret 1900 - 1922

This is ‘Groepsportret’ (Group Portrait) by Robert Julius Boers, housed here at the Rijksmuseum. It’s a photograph, probably taken with a large format camera, where the focus is pretty soft overall and the scene is rendered in a narrow range of sepia tones. I wonder, what was it like to be Boers, setting up this shot? He’s trying to wrangle this group of people, pose them against the hut, and hoping they don’t move for the long exposure. I bet it was hot and dusty. The people are all gazing, some looking at the camera and some looking off into the distance. I’m really curious about what they are thinking. It kind of reminds me of some of those old Edward Curtis photographs of Native Americans where you can sense the performative aspect of constructing an image and also the sadness of the scene. Painting and photography both seek to capture a moment. Neither really succeeds, of course, but I love them for trying.