Groepsportret van kinderen met eenden en poes 1900 - 1930

This photograph of children with ducks and a cat was taken by Richard Tepe sometime in the early 20th century. It's a muted palette of greys and browns, like a memory half-faded. I wonder what Tepe was thinking when he captured this moment? The way the children are posed, so formal and serious, it's like they're performing adulthood. But then you notice the soft ducklings they are cradling and a kitten, and the mood shifts. A tension between seriousness and innocence. That’s the magic of photography. It freezes a moment in time, but the meaning keeps shifting. I think that the magic is also true of paintings too. Think about it like this, every mark, smudge, and erasure tells a story of what was there and what came next. They are evidence of an artist thinking through making. And maybe that’s what Tepe did too.