Vier foto's van Loentje en Willy Onnen met Lilly Mohr en anderen bij een tennisbaan 1910 - 1917

Curator: We’re looking at an album page presenting four gelatin-silver prints dating from about 1910 to 1917, "Vier foto's van Loentje en Willy Onnen met Lilly Mohr en anderen bij een tennisbaan." Editor: They’re bleached out, grainy… almost ethereal. The way they're presented as if casual snaps belies how much chemistry and process went into achieving that dreamy soft focus. Curator: Exactly. The photographer, Loentje Onnen, adopted the pictorialist style. Think of it as photography aspiring to the aesthetic of painting. Notice how figures are positioned, arranged in such ways. Editor: What interests me most is this emphasis on staged leisure. Tennis, outings with friends, a boat trip… this speaks volumes about the social structures, the rising bourgeoisie, who had the time and resources for such pastimes. How this kind of casual luxury is shown through materials! Curator: Leisure wasn't only about whiling away the hours; it signified belonging, status, and refinement. These images became records, symbols to uphold. Editor: Yet the use of soft focus almost transcends documentation. I am curious if there any symbols hidden, there. What kind of statements Loentje made here, in particular. Curator: In pictorialism, the intention wasn't merely to replicate reality but to evoke mood, memory, or atmosphere. Here, the image transforms daily life into idyllic memories. We understand what leisure and having good companions would mean for Onnen. This adds a huge context layer of interpretation, and memory association. Editor: It's all rather deliberate and complex for “snapshots,” I guess. By deliberately manipulating materials and light, Onnen made these pictures stand in, not just document reality, but create its impression to those presented and to their social circles. A perfect time capsule in how to think about labor, love, and materiality to create memories, social dynamics, in photography. Curator: Precisely. Through a veil of beauty, we grasp their world—one defined by social structures that shaped everyday experiences, creating legacies in light. Editor: Absolutely, capturing fleeting moments turned into symbols, almost timeless as the image transforms before our eyes even today.