Willy Onnen met haar oom en tante 1913

This photograph album page features several snapshots of Willy Onnen with her uncle and aunt, taken by an anonymous artist sometime in the early 20th century. I’m imagining the photographer carefully composing each shot, trying to capture a sense of family and place. They're thinking about light, placement, and, crucially, how to freeze a moment in time. In those days, photography was laborious: the darkroom, the glass plates, the chemicals! It makes these images so precious now. See how the snapshots are arranged on the page? It’s like a little painting! Each image is a fragment of a story, pieced together. It shows family, relationships, time, and place. Photography and painting have always been in conversation with one another – inspiring and challenging each other. It's interesting to notice that the conversations between artists are ongoing, creating a collective visual language. The album allows for multiple stories to be told and it’s open to our own interpretations.