Portret van een man met snor 1895 - 1908

This portrait of a man with a moustache, made by E. v.d. Kerkhoff, is a tiny little thing, like a memory card. I really love the way it fades around the edges; it’s almost like the photographer was painting with light. Looking at the way the sepia tones just sort of dissolve into the background, you get the sense that time is passing, like the memory is fading. There’s a lot of blank space in this image, it feels more like an absence than a presence. That moustache though - it’s got real presence! The photographer has totally nailed the focus on that bit of face fuzz. It makes me think of those really early photographic portraits, when people had to sit still for ages. I wonder what this man was thinking? He looks very serious. Maybe a little anxious? It's just so open to interpretation. This feels like an image in conversation with the work of someone like Thomas Ruff. They both share that quietness. It's definitely a piece I could look at all day.