The poet Walter Hasenclever, Dresden c. 1917

Hugo Erfurth shot this photograph of the poet Walter Hasenclever in Dresden, but we don’t know when, exactly. I wonder about Erfurth’s process. The sepia tone suggests to me the photograph was captured in natural light. I can almost feel the textures and surfaces of the photograph. Look how Hasenclever’s face is lit, and how the softness of the light models his features. The tonal range is narrow, but still so expressive. Photography is a mechanical medium, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for the photographer’s hand. Erfurth was trying to capture something in his work – a likeness, a mood, a feeling? I wonder if Hasenclever liked this picture, or if he thought it made him look too serious? Painters and photographers are constantly in dialogue with one another, responding to each other's experiments and innovations. This photograph, for instance, is a form of expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, and allowing for multiple interpretations.