Twee onbekende jonge mannen op een buitentrap 1889 - 1893

Editor: Here we have a photograph titled "Two Unknown Young Men on an Exterior Staircase" by Johanna Margaretha Piek, dating from between 1889 and 1893. It's a gelatin silver print, and there’s a lovely sepia tone to it that gives it a very nostalgic, almost dreamlike quality. What particularly catches your eye when you look at it? Curator: Oh, that sepia dreaminess is so evocative, isn't it? For me, I'm drawn to the idea of untold stories shimmering just beneath the surface. What were their lives like, these two men so meticulously posed on that outdoor staircase? I wonder, were they best friends, brothers, or perhaps something more? And beyond them, the cityscape blurs as they step forward... are we too, to step forward to a changed world? Editor: That's a lovely way to put it. It makes me think about how photography, even back then, could both capture and obscure the truth. We see their faces, but we don't *know* them. The city is also somewhat obscured.. almost out of focus. Is it more background to the portrait or something more important to note? Curator: It is a dance between background and something far more tangible! Cityscapes offer up a story... it hints at aspirations, dreams, futures – for them and us alike. It's an almost tangible "city in amber," preserving a moment, while all around it keeps changing! That blurry quality perhaps encourages us to project our own hopes and fears onto the scene. What do you suppose those boys, caught on film for just an instant, would imagine their world become? Editor: I suppose that sense of fleeting time is amplified by knowing they are, indeed, from the past! Thanks, that really enriches my understanding of the photograph. Curator: The past whispering secrets only art can unlock, no? Always a pleasure!