Groepsportret op een balkon 1911

Geldolph Adriaan Kessler made this tiny photograph called “Groepsportret op een balkon,” but when it was, we don’t know. The whole image is bathed in sepia, like time itself has stained it. The group on the balcony is captured twice, side-by-side, in a double exposure, or maybe it’s a stereoscopic image. What I love most is the way the exposure lets light leak in, blurring the edges of the scene. It’s almost like the emulsion is melting. This effect makes me think about memory. How it fades, how it doubles back on itself, how it’s never quite as sharp as we want it to be. Like a painting, the photograph embraces the accidental, the imperfect, inviting us to look closer, to see more. You could compare it to the work of Gerhard Richter who also explored the blurred image, each pointing to how art can reveal as much as it conceals.