Postzegel met een portret van Mohammad Ali Sjah Qahar 1909

This postage stamp depicts Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar and was made by Pieter Dupont. It’s such a tiny thing, yet it carries so much weight, literally! I like to imagine the hand that carefully engraved the portrait, transferring the Shah's likeness onto a minuscule surface. What were they thinking about as they worked? Did they feel the weight of history, the importance of their task? Or were they simply lost in the process, in the tiny details of the face, the crown, the robes? What does it mean to hold power in your hand, to send it across distances? Stamps are like tiny paintings, aren't they? A gesture of communication, of connection, of exchange. A conversation across time and space.