Vrienden van Loentje Onnen voor een woonhuis 1912

This is a page from a photo album, by Carolina (Loentje) Frederika Onnen. It's hard to know exactly when these photographs were taken, but this kind of work invites us to reflect on the process of image-making itself. The sepia tones and the way the images are mounted on the page really emphasizes the material qualities of the work; the texture of the photographic paper, the way it fades and stains over time. The images show groups of people outside a house, stiffly posed. It’s easy to read these snapshots as simple documentation, but there’s also something dreamlike and mysterious about them. Look closely at how the light bleeds in the image at the top, rendering the group of figures almost ghostly. The way the photograph has become almost abstract; this for me is where the image really sings. Like the work of Gerhard Richter or Vija Celmins, Onnen's images reminds us that art is always a conversation between representation and abstraction. It asks us to consider how we see, remember, and feel.