Portret van een onbekende man met hond 1917

This old photograph presents an unknown man with his dog, likely created through an early automatic photography process. The sepia tones, like a faded memory, wash over the scene, unifying man, beast and the painted backdrop. Look at the way the dog sits on the bench! There’s something about the pose and the staging that feels very deliberate, almost like a performance. The surface of the print is smooth, but the image itself has a palpable graininess that comes with age. In a strange way, this physicality connects me to the subject. It’s like seeing the past through a screen, or a veil. I wonder if this photographer knew what they were capturing. The man’s gaze, the dog’s stance... they seem to be searching. The formality of the portrait and the slightly surreal setup remind me a little of the work of artists like John Baldessari. He took photographs of everyday people and objects, playing with scale and juxtaposition to create images that are both familiar and strangely unsettling. It makes you think about how art continues an ongoing conversation, an exchange of ideas across time.