Twee vrouwen met baby's in doopjurken op schoot, op de achtergrond twee dienstbodes met theepot en naaimand after 1901

Willem Carel van der Kop captured this photographic print of two women with babies in christening gowns, maids, and tea in the late 19th or early 20th century. I imagine the photographer arranging his subjects, posing them with stiff formality amidst the signifiers of wealth and domesticity: a tea set, flowers, fine lace, and crisp uniforms. The cool sepia tones evoke a bygone era, yet there’s something strangely timeless about the image. Van der Kop probably sought to immortalize a moment of bourgeois contentment, but in so doing, captured the unease, restraint, and hidden tensions that percolate beneath the surface of everyday life. I wonder what it was like for him, navigating these social constraints and unspoken rules. Like painters, photographers are alchemists. The click of the shutter captures not just the seen, but the unseen. Each image a conversation across time.