Etalage van de winkel van de Deli Courant te Medan 1930 - 1938

This black and white photograph by W.T. Uhlenhuth captures a shop display. The surface of the window and the framing edges give it a tactile quality. You can almost feel the glass between your fingers. I wonder what Uhlenhuth was thinking as they clicked the shutter, framing the world through their lens? Did they choose this composition to highlight the contrast between public display and private life? I love how the carefully arranged display, with its portraits and draped fabrics, sits against the blank darkness outside, punctuated by the reflection of a streetlight. It reminds me of the way we construct our identities for the world, carefully curating what we choose to reveal. Painters learn so much from photography. Think of Gerhard Richter building up layers of blurred information, almost as if light is bouncing off the canvas. Like painters, photographers keep the conversation going. Each artwork inspires new ways of seeing and expressing the human condition.