Untitled (Man with mustache sleeping) c. 1900 - 1910

Here, we have an anonymous photograph, made with light and silver salts, portraying a man with a mustache sleeping. Isn’t it interesting how a picture, especially an old one like this, can feel like a little stage set? The way the light falls across the bedsheets, almost blurring them into the wallpaper, is like a painter carefully layering tones. You can almost smell the musty air of a forgotten room. Look at the door, slightly ajar, with its lace curtain. It is as if the photographer wanted to give us access to a private moment, a glimpse into a dream. The man's mustache is the star of the show, though, isn't it? That dark stripe against the pale pillow. It reminds me a bit of some of the early surrealists like Magritte, who were masters of taking the ordinary and making it strange, or perhaps even a little absurd. This is art as an ongoing conversation with the past, a dance between what is seen and what is imagined.