Portret van een jonge vrouw, aangeduid als Alida 1907

This portrait of a young woman, Alida, was made by Bakker & Slier. It's a photograph, so mark-making is a question of light and focus. In a way, it's like painting with the sun! What I find interesting is the texture. The image has a soft, almost dreamy quality. The light drapes across Alida's face, catching the delicate lace at her collar. It's not about capturing every detail. Instead, it’s a gentler, more impressionistic approach. A certain mood seems to have been caught here. A real painter would be jealous of the subtleties of tone on show, and the way the camera is able to make tone equal mood. That soft focus reminds me a bit of the Pictorialist photographers, who were trying to make photography look more like painting. It’s all part of this ongoing conversation about what art is, and how we see the world. It also makes you think about how the meaning of an artwork is never truly fixed.