Zes foto's van Loentje en Willy Onnen met anderen in een tuin 1910 - 1916

This is an undated page from a photo album containing six gelatin silver prints mounted on card, showing Carolina (Loentje) Frederika Onnen with friends and family in a garden. These images are really about texture and light. The way the light falls on the faces, how the silver reacts to the paper, the softness of the focus, it's all of a piece. I notice how the handwriting below each image mirrors the tone of the photographs. Note how each caption curves in a similar way and is evenly spaced beneath the photographs; each print is a captured moment, inscribed with care. The overall effect is a gentle one. The composition of the album page speaks to me of other artists, like Gerhard Richter. I feel like Onnen is speaking to Richter across time; they are in a conversation, both interested in photography as a means of cataloguing and preserving intimate moments. Ultimately, this work reminds us that art is an ongoing dialogue, a dance between the artist and their materials, a conversation across generations.