Het echtpaar Letterie c. 1913

This is a photograph of Het echtpaar Letterie, by Onnes Kurkdjian, taken in Java. It's a small thing, maybe 20 cm high, and it really invites you to look close. The image itself is softly rendered, all gentle gradations of light and shadow. The texture of the photograph is smooth. It's impossible to know from this distance what kind of camera Kurkdjian used, or how much he may have retouched the image in the darkroom. But I love the contrast between the soft oval of the portrait and the rigid rectangular card. It's like a little world held within a frame. Look at the woman's hair, how it seems to float around her head. I'm reminded of Julia Margaret Cameron and her soft focus portraits of Victorian England, though this is a world away geographically. Both artists seem interested in something beyond a simple likeness. They both look to capture something of the soul.