Portret van een (vermoedelijk) Nederlandse militair, staand bij een fiets c. 1895 - 1908

This mounted photograph, made by E. v.d. Kerkhoff, presents a Dutch soldier with his bicycle. The tones are sepia, somewhere between brown and grey, giving it that old-timey feel. It's like stepping into a memory. Looking at the surface, there's a softness. The details are clear but it lacks that hyper-real clarity you might find in a contemporary image. Instead, the subtle gradations create a sense of depth and volume. There is a mark on the wall behind the figure, where the surface has been damaged. It acts as a reminder of the vulnerability of material objects, and maybe even human life. It makes me think of Atget, the French photographer who documented turn-of-the-century Paris. Like Atget, Kerkhoff captures a specific moment in time, an individual and their relationship to a changing world. Art is never really about answers, it's about the questions and the way that the conversation unfolds across time and space.