Blad 68 uit Stamboek van de leerlingen der Koloniale School voor Meisjes en Vrouwen te 's-Gravenhage deel II (1930-1949) Possibly 1935 - 1936

This is page 68 from a register of students at the Colonial School for Girls and Women in The Hague, dating from between 1930 and 1949. The images of the students alongside their entries bear a resemblance to funerary portraits. This book acts as a portal. Like the Mnemosyne Atlas, it connects images across time. The portraits, resembling funerary effigies, evoke Roman death masks used to preserve the likeness of ancestors. This is reminiscent of ancient Egyptian practices of preserving images of the dead to ensure their continued existence in the afterlife. The student portraits are standardized, yet each holds a unique gaze, capturing a fleeting moment. Similarly, consider how a mother holds a photograph of a lost son, and each viewing, each encounter, is a dance between presence and absence. These images become powerful forces engaging viewers on a subconscious level, evoking a sense of nostalgia and remembrance. Like the cyclical return of symbols in art, the faces in this register resurface, echoing the past in the present.