Marba en Eckart Titzenthaler, kinderen van de fotograaf, op een erf met kippen en eenden 1918 - 1919

Waldemar Titzenthaler captured this scene, “Marba en Eckart Titzenthaler, kinderen van de fotograaf, op een erf met kippen en eenden”, with photography, and I imagine him experimenting with the possibilities of the medium, playing with the contrast between light and shadow, perhaps in his own backyard? Look how the light softly illuminates the children amidst a flurry of chickens and ducks. Titzenthaler frames his children with a shallow depth of field, so that the background of the fence and trees dissolves into a gentle blur. The dark netting on the right almost seems to vibrate against the wooden background, as if it might come loose. I imagine Titzenthaler coaxing his children into their places, encouraging them to hold still long enough for the exposure. Maybe they would try to make the animals come to them, trying to get them to perform a certain way. Through these family portraits, Titzenthaler is in conversation with other photographers, like Gertrude Käsebier, who aimed to represent the experience of motherhood and childhood with painterly and expressive qualities.