Portret van Meinard Dorus Mijer 1940 - 1950

This portrait of Meinard Dorus Mijer, a small black and white photograph, is held within the confines of the album page. I think of the photographer and the subject, how they constructed a moment, outside a building maybe, somewhere bright. I wonder what the photographer was thinking? What was it like to hold the camera, to frame the man? There are the edges of things, of walls, and a glimpse of nature. The man is framed by all of this and then again, by the image's paper corners that hold it on the album page. The photograph is presented and preserved. I feel like artists are always looking to each other across time. The photograph makes me think about portraiture, about what it means to see someone, to really see them, and how painting, too, allows that gaze to be rendered in a certain moment, preserved through the movement of marks. It is always an exchange, a question that never has one right answer.