Josias Von Heeringen 1914

Nicola Perscheid took this photograph of Josias Von Heeringen at some unknown time with some unknown camera set up. Look at him – a figure of authority, frozen in monochrome. I’m thinking about the act of photographing him, the staging of the shot. I wonder what Perscheid was thinking. Is this like, a painting? The way the light falls, carefully sculpted, almost feels painterly. He's really working the greyscale here, and the textures are popping, from the glinting metal on his uniform to his neatly trimmed beard. Even though it’s a photograph, there's a sensitivity to it. A way of capturing not just the general’s likeness but maybe something of his inner self. I can really feel the conversation between these two men. It reminds us that every artist is always in conversation with someone else.