Portret van een onbekende vrouw c. 1885 - 1928

This small portrait of an unknown woman was made by W.G. Kuijer & Zonen, in Amsterdam. Look at the careful modulation of tone, and how this shapes the light that falls on her face. Photography is such a physical medium, isn’t it? We tend to think of it as a purely representational medium, and forget about the materiality involved. This kind of portrait is so much about surface; the smooth, matte quality of the photographic paper, the way the image is built up through layers of light. You can imagine the darkroom, the smell of the chemicals. It's a process of building up a likeness, but also of building up a material object. The woman's gaze is so direct, so present. I like to think of how many hands this little picture passed through. It’s a ghost of someone’s life, preserved in shades of grey. Think of it in conversation with the portraits of the great August Sander.