Gezicht op een lijst met daarin een portret van Leo Tolstoi before 1902

This anonymous photograph of Leo Tolstoy, in what looks like a printed magazine, is a quiet meditation on portraiture, and, to me, photography itself. It's a picture of a picture, which gives the depicted image of Tolstoy another layer of framing, emphasizing the Russian author's status as an icon. The black and white tones feel cool, maybe a little distant, and it makes me think about the way photographs, especially older ones, tend to flatten and smooth out details. Here, the light is flat. You can't see much of the texture of the print, or the magazine page, as if it is there only to transmit the message of Tolstoy himself. It also brings to mind the work of Gerhard Richter, who was interested in the layered meaning of photography. Both artists use images to explore memory and history, but embrace ambiguity as a central element of their art.