August Schmarsow 1913

This photograph of August Schmarsow was taken by Nicola Perscheid, but its date remains a mystery, a kind of open question. You know, I wonder what it must have been like for Perscheid, setting up the shot, adjusting the lights, asking Schmarsow to sit just so. There's a formality to it, a kind of stillness, but there's also something human peeking through. The grayscale captures a range of tones, from the deep blacks of Schmarsow's suit to the soft grays of his beard. These aren’t just colors, but feelings made visible. I wonder if Perscheid was trying to capture something beyond just the surface, something about Schmarsow’s inner life. I’m often trying to do that with paint – a way to externalize an internal state. Maybe it’s the same with photography. In the end, artists are always building on what came before, trying to make something new from the old. They are driven by a desire to understand the world.