Portret van een vrouw 1968

This photograph, "Portret van een vrouw", a portrait of a woman by François Touranchet, is small, only 90mm high and 55mm wide. You know, looking at this image, I'm struck by the way photography can sometimes feel like painting, or painting like photography. Take the oval vignette around the woman's head and shoulders, for instance. The sepia tones make the image feel so soft, like a memory half-recalled. The way the light falls on her face, it's almost as if Touranchet was using light the way a painter uses brushstrokes, to model form and create depth. And then there's the flatness of the image itself, the way it resists any sense of deep space. In a way, this photograph reminds me of the work of someone like Gerhard Richter, who also blurred the lines between photography and painting, embracing the ambiguity of representation. It's like a reminder that art is always a conversation, an ongoing dialogue between artists across time.