Portretten waaronder dat van zangeres Julia Culp c. 1901

This page from a photo album, including a portrait of the singer Julia Culp, was made by an anonymous artist. You can see how the album itself is part of the artwork; the lined paper becomes a kind of ground for the images. I love the texture and the sepia tones in these old photographs. There's a formality to the poses, but also an intimacy, like you're looking into someone's private world. I think of the way Gerhard Richter used photographs as a basis for his paintings, blurring the images to create a sense of distance and memory. Here, the anonymous artist is doing something similar, creating a space for us to reflect on the past. The images feel collaged, an arrangement in which some images take precedent over others. The eye moves around the page, composing its own narrative. Ultimately, the piece feels like an embrace of ambiguity. There's no one right way to see it.