Portret van Ida Keyser 1892 - 1910

This photo of Ida Keyser was made by Atelier Herz, in Amsterdam. It's small, like a playing card, and sepia-toned, which gives the whole thing a feeling of gentle age, but also a little bit of romantic distance. Looking at this, I’m drawn to the way the light is handled. It's not harsh; it’s diffused, almost like a memory. It's like the photographer was trying to capture not just a likeness, but a feeling, an impression of Ida. The soft focus around the edges makes her seem to emerge from the background. I like the way her dark ruffled collar frames her face, as though she is peering through a cloud of fabric. The photographer has chosen to use a soft, shallow depth of field, so that the collar is not entirely in focus. Photography and painting, they're always in conversation, trying to pin down what it means to see, to remember, to be present. Like a Manet portrait, it’s a study in light, and the way it shapes our perception. It's about an instant, but also about the echoes that linger.