Groepsportret met Go, Dolph en Jan Kessler bij het vertrek met de trein after 1903

This sepia photograph by Geldolph Adriaan Kessler captures a group portrait at a train departure. It’s intimate, like a snapshot from a family album, and yet feels so staged and formal at the same time. I imagine Kessler, balancing the camera, trying to capture the moment without the luxury of digital previews. What was he thinking as he framed the shot? Did he sense the weight of history, capturing a moment that would outlive them all? The subjects, with their elaborate hats and stern expressions, seem caught between anticipation and melancholy, poised on the brink of a journey into the unknown. I love how this piece plays with the ideas of time and memory. It reminds me of some of my own paintings. I'm interested in layering and how artists across time are having a silent conversation with each other, riffing on the same themes, exploring the human condition. Kessler's photograph, like a well-wrought painting, invites us to contemplate the fleeting nature of existence and the enduring power of art to capture a moment, a feeling, a memory.