Zittende man met een zonnehoed before 1905

Charles Nègre made this tiny photograph of a seated man with a sun hat, at an unknown date, most likely using a Calotype. It's interesting how an image, even one so small and faded, can contain so much information. The tones are soft, almost dreamlike, the light catching the man's hat and shoulders. There’s a real attention to the texture here, from the rough fabric of the man's clothes to the grainy quality of the photographic paper itself. I wonder what kind of paper was used here, and how that decision affects the way the image feels. Look at how the light falls across his form, it's almost sculptural, giving shape to his presence in the frame. There's an intimacy here, despite the distance of time. You get the feeling that this was an artist who was interested in looking at the overlooked corners of the world. Like, say, Eugène Atget, but much earlier and in a very different medium. In the end, the real subject isn't just the seated man, but how we connect to the past through images.