Jakob Schaffner 1925

Nicola Perscheid made this portrait of Jakob Schaffner using photography, and I find it so compelling because of the way the light works. It's all about the process, isn’t it? Photography is alchemy, and the tones here have this rich, dark feel. Look at the area around Schaffner's face: it has this soft-focus, almost blurry effect, with shades shifting from light to dark, like he’s emerging from the ether. It’s a beautiful kind of manipulation, using light and shadow like paint. Then there's the sharpness of his hands, almost sculptural against the dark fabric. This creates such a tension between the ephemeral and the concrete, the fleeting and the fixed. You can feel the connection to Symbolist painting with this work, those artists who also sought to capture a sense of psychological depth through careful manipulation of light and form. It’s a reminder that art, whatever the medium, is about finding new ways of seeing and feeling.