Twee vrouwen in een landschap met lelie en regenboog before 1916

Adelaide Hanscom Leeson made this image of two women using a camera, paper, and darkroom chemicals. What a soft scene! Look at those two women in white, draped in fabric that falls in heavy folds, positioned beneath a rainbow in the sky. What were they thinking as they posed? I can imagine Adelaide carefully arranging her composition. The placement of the lilies, the curve of the rainbow, the subtle interaction between the women and the light. The rainbow itself seems like a bridge between painting and photography, reminding us that artists have always been in conversation. I see nods to Pre-Raphaelite painting in the romanticism and symbolism of the figures. What feelings of hope did Adelaide wish to communicate? How have photographers taken ideas from painting in order to create a picture? How have painters looked to photography for inspiration? It is an ongoing exchange.