Drie foto's van klassen van de Godelindeschool, Hilversum 1910

These three photographs of classrooms at the Godelindeschool in Hilversum, taken sometime around 1910, are pasted into an album, a kind of snapshot, or rather three snapshots, of a moment in time. The sepia tones give everything a feeling of distance, but also intimacy, like old family photos. Each image is a group portrait, the students posed in front of the school building. What strikes me is the way the photos are so self-contained, like little worlds, each class arranged just so, the girls' faces holding stories we can only guess at. In the top photo, there’s a girl lying on the ground, which is such an odd detail. What was she thinking? Was she bored, rebellious, or just tired? This single detail feels like a key to the whole album, a reminder that behind every formal portrait there’s a mess of human emotions, desires, and anxieties. It reminds me a little of the work of Lisette Model, who took similarly unposed portraits of people in the 1940s. These are like casual conversations between kindred spirits separated by time. Ultimately, these photos are a testament to how art invites us to embrace ambiguity and to find beauty in the incomplete.