Groepsportret van Johanna Geertruida, Johannes Diderik en Anne Madeleine van der Waals 1907

This photograph was taken by Aleidas Christiaan Kunst, and shows Johanna Geertruida, Johannes Diderik and Anne Madeleine van der Waals. I love these black and white portraits, don’t you? I’m imagining Kunst setting up his camera and arranging the three kids. He’s probably got all sorts of tricks to get them to sit still and smile. I mean, look at the kid on the left, lost in laughter, and the girl on the right is busy with her bootlace. As a painter, I can relate to the artist wrestling with the messiness of life, trying to wrangle it into some kind of order on film. There’s a dialogue happening here, like in painting too, between the planned setup and the spontaneity of the subjects. The way the light falls, the expressions on their faces – each one offers a glimpse into a specific moment, a feeling. It's like the conversation painters have with the work of artists throughout time, and this image makes me think of the work of Lisette Model. What do you see?