Groepsportret van Grietje Vermeulen-Luitjes en haar kinderen op een balkon c. 1901s

David Vermeulen made this photograph, *Groepsportret van Grietje Vermeulen-Luitjes en haar kinderen op een balkon*, probably using a large format camera with glass plate negatives. You know, I find myself wondering about the process here. Was it a sunny day? Did he use a reflector to bounce light? I imagine he had a small darkroom set up somewhere nearby, and the image slowly materializing in the developer. The muted sepia tones give it such a dreamy quality. Look at the way the figures stand close together, almost merging into one another, and the tiny toy held by one of the children! I wonder if they knew that one day we would be peering at them like this? There's something incredibly intimate about portraiture – a kind of visual conversation across time. It reminds us that artists, no matter their medium, are always in dialogue with one another and their subjects, each capturing fleeting moments and feelings that resonate long after.