Portret van Josefine Moos-Levi, met hanger om nek en bewerkte bontkraag op haar donkere kleding Possibly 1901 - 1938

Here's a photograph of Josefine Moos-Levi wearing a fur collar and pendant, and we don't know who took it. I love to imagine what it must have been like for the sitter in these sorts of portraits. The anonymous artist must have carefully composed the frame, thinking about how to light her face and capture the details of her clothing, so she'd be remembered. I like the gray, misty quality of this picture, which makes it feel old and precious at the same time. The artist would have been in a room, with a special camera on a tripod and some dark curtains to control the light. Then they might have had to wait until the light was just right. It is possible that the sitter had to stay very still to make sure the picture was clear. It is so different from taking a picture today with a camera phone. It makes you think about the labor involved in trying to capture someone's image. Photography is also a kind of painting, too, in the way that the photographer frames the subject of the image. It is interesting to think about the similarities between photography and painting and how each relates to the other.