Portret van Eadweard Muybridge before 1905

This portrait of Eadweard Muybridge is tucked away in the pages of a book, probably made with ink and some kind of printing process. I see him peeking out from the left page with this long beard, like he's a wizard or something. I wonder what it was like for the person making the artwork. Were they thinking about capturing Muybridge's essence, or just documenting his appearance? It's kind of amazing how this flat image can still give us a sense of a person, even across time. I notice the contrast between the darks and lights, creating depth and volume. It kind of reminds me of how painters use value to create form, even if it is more about precision than expression. Thinking about Muybridge, he was trying to capture movement, and here he is, frozen in time. Artists are always playing with these ideas, trying to capture something fleeting and turn it into something permanent. It’s like we are all in conversation, reaching across the ages. Painting is about expression, about feeling, and about opening up possibilities. There’s no one way to see it, and that’s the beauty of it.