Portret van een onbekende jonge vrouw before 1918

This small photograph of an unknown young woman was made by the American Automatic Photograph Company. The image is what I call a "low-resolution" black and white. It reminds me of early experiments with abstraction, where the subject almost disappears in the process of image-making. It feels like it could be from any time, because the level of detail is so minimal. The way the light falls across her face creates an almost painterly effect. It invites you to fill in the blanks, to imagine the colors and textures of her clothing. I keep thinking about how the photographic process itself is concealed, or maybe celebrated, in this image. It is hard to know how to read her expression. What was it like to sit for one of these automatic cameras? Was it a formal process, or something more casual? Like all good artworks, it raises more questions than it answers. Much like the work of someone like Sophie Calle, it opens up the possibility of thinking about absence, memory, and the passage of time.