Portret van een onbekende lezende vrouw before 1899

This is a photographic print from Johan Huijsser, titled "Portret van een onbekende lezende vrouw". Given the artist’s lifespan, it was probably made in the early twentieth century. What strikes me is how this image creates meaning through its inclusion in a bound volume. In that period, photography was gaining ground as a documentary tool, and as an artistic medium. Here, a study of an anonymous woman reading is presented alongside text in a book on photography. It invites questions about the relationship between photography and knowledge. Is it a portrait of an individual, or a demonstration of photographic technique? How does this relate to cultural shifts in early 20th century Netherlands, as new forms of media and information were becoming available? To understand this image better, it could be researched in libraries and archives of photography. The meaning of art is contingent on these kinds of social and institutional contexts.