Fotoreproductie van een foto door Gebrüder Hofmeister, voorstellend een portret van een man before 1907

This photogravure of a man’s portrait was made at some point in the past and reproduced in a book. It’s a study in grayscale – a limited palette if there ever was one – yet within that, it’s all about the process of seeing, recording, and reproducing an image. The texture is remarkable; look at the way the light catches the fibers of the paper, creating a subtle, almost palpable surface. The areas of deep shadow, the man’s coat, his eyes, are not just dark, they are textured with the grain of the photographic print. Then there’s the soft focus, almost a blur, that makes the image feel less like a captured moment and more like a memory. A memory that’s perhaps smudged or softened around the edges. It reminds me of a Gerhard Richter painting, where a photograph is deliberately blurred, not to conceal but to reveal the act of seeing itself. Both artists embrace ambiguity, inviting multiple interpretations rather than imposing a singular, fixed meaning.