Gezicht op een onbekende jonge vrouw in een roeiboot before 1902

This photograph of a woman in a rowboat, was taken by Charles Scolik, though we don't know exactly when. Looking at it, I’m immediately drawn to the woman’s stillness against the water, to the long elegant lines of the oar. I imagine Scolik setting up his camera, hoping to capture a sense of spontaneity. The image feels like a quiet moment snatched from life—a painter’s sort of moment. You know, photography has always been in conversation with painting. Think about impressionists like Monet and Degas, who were trying to capture light and movement in new ways. Maybe Scolik was thinking about those paintings too! Trying to find a way to translate that kind of feeling and light into his photography. It's almost as if the woman in the boat could at any moment start to move, and the whole picture would shift and change. It’s so cool how one artist’s ideas can ripple out, inspiring new ways of seeing and feeling in another.