Portret van een jongeman in militair uniform 1881 - 1900

Editor: So, this is "Portret van een jongeman in militair uniform", a gelatin silver print made sometime between 1881 and 1900, created by P. Vlaanderen & C. van der Aa. It's… melancholy, I think. The young man looks so serious. What do you see in it? Curator: I see a captured moment, a little vignette of life carefully placed within an oval frame – a story held in sepia tones, whispering across the years. The uniform, the serious gaze… it’s so controlled, isn’t it? I wonder what he was truly like, this young man playing soldier for the camera? Did he dream of glory or of going home? What kind of dreams do you imagine lived behind those eyes? Editor: I imagine it was quite regimented. Like the military garb boxes him in, and maybe even shapes his expression, and I can’t help but feel sad about that. It feels like romanticism, but restrained, forced into something it’s not. Curator: Precisely! The Romantic era tried so hard to define, refine, everything; they couldn't escape a touch of the baroque! Perhaps he never wanted to be defined at all? Maybe that's the seed of melancholy that you sensed – the fight for individual expression against societal expectation. Do you think the choice of photography, just emerging, helped him express his own story? Editor: That’s a great point. It is such an early photograph. Maybe he was using the novelty of it to exert some control. He can't choose the war, but maybe he can chose his pose, or how much he shows. I'd not thought of it that way. Curator: Exactly! I find these small histories within grand narratives so incredibly compelling, don't you? Editor: Absolutely, thank you! I'm seeing the nuance much more clearly now, it's fantastic.