Portret van Louis Ducos du Hauron before 1905

This is a portrait of Louis Ducos du Hauron that I saw reproduced in a book. It's not a painting, but you know, photography is like painting with light, right? The way the tones shift in this image, from dark to light, makes me think about the artist really understanding the tools of light. You can see it in the way the light defines his face, how it catches the edge of his nose and cheek. It’s so precise. Look at the way the shadows seem to blend and soften around the edges. There's a tension between clarity and ambiguity that I always find interesting. Photography is a process of seeing, making decisions, and then letting the medium do its thing. It's like a conversation with the world. It's a process of capturing and interpreting reality, and in that, it connects with earlier traditions of portraiture.