Koningin Wilhelmina loopt door een veld onder begeleiding van de veldwacht. 1912

This photograph of Queen Wilhelmina walking through a field, escorted by the field guard, was taken by Coenradus Hendrikus Johannes Reijers. The image captures a moment in time. It’s a study in shades of grey, which adds to its sense of seriousness. I wonder what it was like for Reijers to witness such a scene? To be a recorder, to pay attention to the light, the posture, the relationship of the figures in the image? The people in the background are cheering, but Wilhelmina is stoic. Maybe the artist was trying to convey some emotion through the composition. The darks and lights are placed in such a way that our eye is drawn from the Queen to the escort and beyond. Photography, like painting, is about documenting life as it passes and also a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity. Each of the approaches allows for multiple interpretations.