Portret van een Egyptische boerenvrouw met haar kind op de schouder before 1905

This is a photograph, made by Khardiache Frères, called "Portret van een Egyptische boerenvrouw met haar kind op de schouder", or "Portrait of an Egyptian Farm Woman with Her Child on Her Shoulder". I wonder what it was like for the photographers making the portrait? Did they have to ask her to pose, or did they catch her just like this? The light is so soft, she seems to be dissolving into the background, yet the child is so present. He seems to be nuzzling into her headscarf. She looks like she is standing there for a long time. I wonder about the making of the picture itself, the exposure time? The time it takes to develop the photograph? This picture is so compelling, so still, it invites us into a world of tenderness. There is a very long history of artists painting mother and child – this photo is a continuation of this conversation.