Portret van een jongen bij een bidstoel 1880 - 1940

This small photo by Soleil du Dimanche shows a young boy at a prayer stand. The sepia tones make me think about process - like the time it takes to carefully develop an image in the darkroom. It’s a slow build, like painting. There is so much contained in this image - the grainy texture, the way the light falls on the boy's face, that little wooden cross at the front of the prayer stand. Even the slight blur of the background adds to the feeling of something special being captured. I keep coming back to the stand - the geometry of the small cross and the table top give this little world structure. But even that is soft, a little foggy. This photo reminds me of some of the early portraits by Félix Vallotton, that same interest in the sitter's form and personality. Like Vallotton, this image exists in a space between reality and something that's felt. A picture of a moment, but also a moment in time, open to infinite interpretation.