Tenniswedstrijd 1911 - 1912

This is a compilation of photographs, by Carolina Frederika Onnen. In these kinds of scrapbook photos, the image does all the work and the physical object, here the cardboard, holds the images together. It's a very matter-of-fact process, without varnish or tricky surface effects, which seems appropriate to the subject matter: a tennis match. The tones are muted and warm and the texture is fairly smooth. I find myself zooming in on the woman with the parasol. The composition and texture of the image is flat, like a cutout, but she still somehow creates a world that draws you into the scene. This photo really embraces art as a form which embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed or definitive meanings. In a similar way, I’m thinking of the work of the collagist Hannah Höch, though she does things with more edge and political intent.