Portret van Karl Meissner before 1903

This is Hugo Erfurth's portrait of Karl Meissner, it's a photograph, and appears to be part of a book. You know, what really strikes me is the density of tone and shadow here, and the way the surface almost seems to dissolve. It’s not about capturing some kind of solid likeness but about the process of revelation through light and dark. Look at Meissner's hair, it feels like a dense and unknowable mass, a shadow. Then consider the light reflecting on his cheek, the hard line of his neck. That play between clarity and obscurity gives the image its tension. The way that the photograph is framed in the book reminds me of an early experiment, like an alchemical process. It's like Erfurth is asking us to look, but also to question what we're seeing, and how we see it. It reminds me of Moholy-Nagy, playing around in the darkroom. Ultimately, it's all just light and shadow anyway, isn’t it?