Wilhelmina van Zijll de Jong met een andere vrouw voor een huis 1930 - 1935

This small photograph shows Wilhelmina van Zijll de Jong with another woman in front of a house, probably taken sometime in the early 20th century. It’s amazing, isn’t it, how a simple snapshot can hold so much feeling? I imagine the photographer trying to capture a casual moment, the women pausing in their day, perhaps thinking about the light, the angle, the way their faces will look for posterity. The dogs milling around, one in perfect focus, the other blurred, almost as if they were painted. It feels like this image is a conversation between stillness and motion. You can almost feel the warmth of the sun on their faces, hear the sounds of the dogs, the quiet murmur of conversation. I wonder what Wilhelmina was thinking at that moment, what her relationship with the other woman was, what their lives were like. It is so intimate, personal. I feel like I'm looking into a private world. And I love that.