Portret van een onbekende vrouw c. 1887 - 1917

This photograph of an unknown woman was taken by Marinus Cornelis Dingjan. I wonder what it was like to be her? Think about it: the whole process of posing, of sitting still, of trying to look natural while being intensely observed by a guy with a camera. There’s a certain amount of trust involved, right? You're letting someone capture your image, your likeness, and that's pretty intimate. Now, imagine being Dingjan, the photographer. How does he capture a sense of this woman's inner life, her personality? It's all in the details - the way she holds herself, the slight smile, the glint in her eye. And what's she thinking in that very instant, at that very moment? Is she nervous, excited, or just plain bored? I feel like artists are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas, inspiring one another’s creativity, it's all about embodied expression embracing ambiguity.