Studioportret van een onbekende vrouw c. 1910 - 1920

This small studio portrait of an unknown woman was made by P. Steensma. The grey tones remind me of early photography, which had a real focus on the material aspects of image making. It's interesting to think about the texture of this photograph, the paper it’s printed on and the way the image sits on the surface. You know, photography is all about light and shadow, and this portrait plays with that in subtle ways. See how the light catches the woman's face and hat, while the background is softer, almost blurred? The landscape behind her seems almost painted, which is appropriate since I’m a painter. It makes the whole scene feel a little dreamlike, a little unreal. Thinking about the history of portraiture, I’m reminded of the work of someone like Julia Margaret Cameron, who also used soft focus and experimented with the possibilities of early photographic techniques.