Portret van een paar geliefden, portret van een jonge vrouw voor een open haard en een portret van drie musicerende personen 1900 - 1930

Here’s three for the price of one; a young couple, a woman staring into a fire, and a band made by Rotary Photo. All tucked up neatly in this olive green book. There’s a real tenderness to these images, a muted palette of mauves and blues, it’s as though the photographer is reflecting on the subtle emotional registers of social life. Look at the band, the shadows on their faces create an almost melancholic air, but they’re playing, working together. In all three, the cropping feels so important, the figures presented as if captured in a mirror, framed in these tight octagonal panels. It reminds me of the way Bonnard would crop figures at the edge of a painting. The whole thing becomes an interplay of presence and absence, of what is included, and what is left out. It all feels so familiar, and a little out of reach.