Portret van een meisje 1904 - 1906

Onnes Kurkdjian made this photograph of a girl sometime between 1851 and 1903. The photograph’s sepia tones add to the feeling that we’re looking into the past. The girl’s pose is formal, yet she seems like she’s about to wriggle free. Her dress and socks are crisp white, and she looks like she’s been told to stand still and smile, but you can tell she’s got her own ideas. I love the way her dress falls, it’s like a piece of sculpture. The edges are soft, and the light seems to be eating into the shapes. Photography always reminds me of painting, it’s a process of layering and revealing. I guess, like most art, it’s about seeing what happens. Like the work of someone like Alice Neel, it’s the everyday that makes it so good. It feels so honest.