Bij den photograaf 1876 - 1891

This comic strip, "Bij den photograaf," by Firmin Bouisset, captures a seemingly mundane scene with echoes that resonate across time. Here, we see the ritual of portraiture, with all its anxiety and anticipation. The most striking symbol is the children’s doll, brought to life through the act of photography. The doll, a surrogate for the self, appears repeatedly in art history, bearing with it a burden of memory and longing. This reminds us of the ancient practice of creating effigies, where a symbolic representation stands in for the real. The act of posing, of trying to capture a moment, speaks to our deeply rooted desire to arrest time. We see this even in ancient funerary portraits, the image of the deceased intended to preserve their identity for eternity. The nervous movement, fussing, and eventual chaos, reflect the psychological weight of representation, where our inner selves struggle to align with the external image we wish to project. The cycle concludes with the literal collapse of the apparatus, mirroring the fragility of our attempts to control and preserve the past, a reminder that life is, in fact, movement.