Portretten c. 1900 - 1925

This album page, by an unknown artist, presents a series of photographic portraits, a collection of moments captured and arranged. The sepia tones and varying sizes of the photographs suggest a personal, almost scrapbook-like quality. I’m drawn to the physicality of the album itself. The way the photos are attached and arranged makes me think of painting. The fading and discoloration, the way the images bleed into the background, all add to the work's emotional resonance. The image of the woman with the umbrella on the pier is particularly striking, because the faded edges and soft focus of the print make it feel like it has been painted. The way the light catches the edge of the pier and the way the light filters through the umbrella is so dreamy. This work reminds me of the way Gerhard Richter uses photography as source material, blurring and manipulating images to explore memory and representation. Like Richter's paintings, this album page invites us to reflect on the nature of images and the passage of time. The ambiguity and multiple interpretations of this album page are, to me, its most compelling features.