Studioportret van twee onbekende meisjes c. 1895 - 1910

Sander van der Zijl made this photograph of two girls in Amsterdam in the late 19th or early 20th century. The sepia tone makes everything feel both here and gone, like a memory, or a dream. The tones are restrained, and it's all about subtle shifts in light and shadow. Look at how the photographer has arranged the girls - their matching outfits, their serious expressions, that odd little decorative fence between them. It's so staged, so deliberately composed. The fence feels symbolic, as if the girls are in a cage. I wonder what that fence means to the artist, or what he wanted it to mean to us. This picture reminds me a bit of the work of Diane Arbus, with its slightly unsettling, confrontational gaze. But where Arbus goes for raw and real, this photo feels like it’s from another world. Ultimately, art isn't about answers, it's about posing questions, and this photograph does that in spades.