Man in klederdracht, staande op een zeilboot in Volendam 1920 - 1940

This brown-toned photograph by G. Hidderley shows a man standing on a sailboat in Volendam. Imagine the artist, squinting behind the camera, framing the shot just so. The man in traditional dress is surrounded by the textures of the boats, the rigging, the water... You know, photography is a funny thing. It aims to capture a moment, but what moment is that, really? Hidderley had to make choices, like what to include, what to leave out. Maybe they were thinking about composition, or maybe they were just trying to get a good likeness of the man in costume. There's a stillness in the image that makes me think of other painters, like Whistler, who were also trying to capture the quiet moments of everyday life. Artists are always talking to each other, even across time, and I think Hidderley was part of that conversation, too.