Zelfportret van Wilhelm Bandelow before 1901

Here's a self-portrait, maybe a found image, of Wilhelm Bandelow, made with his camera. I can imagine him staring into the lens, trying to figure himself out. What’s this guy thinking? Maybe he’s contemplating the nature of selfhood, or maybe he's just trying to get a good shot. I see the camera, held up in the foreground, as a kind of shield or intermediary between him and us. What does it mean to look at oneself through a machine? It’s a little bit meta, a little bit vulnerable. Looking at this photograph, I feel a connection to all the artists who have ever tried to capture their own essence, from Rembrandt to Frida Kahlo. We are all in conversation with one another, riffing on the same themes, pushing the boundaries of what art can be. Art becomes this exchange of ideas across time, inspiring creativity.