Portret van twee onbekende mannen, één met verrekijker 1900 - 1914

This small photograph by Jos. Ohlenschläger, shows two unknown men in a portrait of only 105 by 63mm. Looking at this image, I imagine the artist might have been trying to capture a sense of the men's seriousness and respectability but there is something playful about the image – the way one man is sitting perched on what looks like a garden fence, a pair of binoculars slung around his neck, while the other is standing holding a note. I wonder what they might have been thinking, their lives and aspirations? It's nice that the artist captured not only the formality of the occasion but also the spirit of the men. Painters and photographers are always in dialogue with the past, building on what has come before, reinventing and reimagining it for their time. I like the photograph’s ambiguity, its uncertainty, and how that allows us to bring our own reading and meaning to it.