Dimensions: height 260 mm, width 325 mm
Copyright: Rijks Museum: Open Domain
This scrapbook page, by Carolina (Loentje) Frederika Onnen, presents four images of friends on the street, at the beach, and by the Scheveningse Pier in the Netherlands. The way the photos are arranged feels almost intuitive, less about rigid composition and more about capturing a mood. What’s striking to me is the texture of the photographs themselves, their material presence. The monochromatic tones lend a timeless quality, like a faded memory, while the visible grain adds a layer of abstraction to the images. I’m drawn to the photo on the bottom left, of a man with two dogs on a beach. The blur of the waves behind them makes them almost like actors on a stage set, where the line between reality and performance is blurred. Onnen’s photographic eye reminds me a bit of Hannah Höch, in the way she uses collage and juxtaposition to create new meanings. Art here becomes a form of dialogue across time.
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