Isabel Wachenheimer in een geblokt overhemd op de bank in Israël, 1949-1955 1949 - 1955

This photograph of Isabel Wachenheimer, in a checkered shirt, was taken sometime between 1949 and 1955 in Israel, by an unknown photographer. I’m wondering about the act of photographing someone – the intimacy of looking, the careful angling, the moment when the subject is asked to stay still. There is something quite casual about this image. The light is soft. Isabel seems relaxed, there is the sense that she is in her own domestic space. The checkered pattern of her shirt echoes the square format of the photograph, a kind of doubling, a pattern within a pattern. I bet the photographer probably took several images, moving slightly, adjusting the focus, hoping to capture something essential, or fleeting about Isabel. They might have developed the photos in their own dark room, watching the image emerge slowly in the developing tray. In doing so, the photographer preserves a particular moment in time, inviting us to pause and reflect on it. It's kind of beautiful.