Een gedekte tafel in de tropen met daaraan mensen gekleed in het wit. c. 1910

This image, by Frits Freerks Fontein, captures a meal in the tropics, with people dressed in white, and something about the sepia tones and the gathering hints at an otherworldly communion. I can almost feel the heavy air and imagine what it must have been like to create this image—the arrangement of the table, the placing of the figures, the way the light falls. Look at the way the figures are arranged around the table, as if the table is both there and not there. The surface of the photograph is a little rough and it invites the viewer to speculate. The surface tension between the figures creates a sense of atmosphere. It reminds me a little of Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard - or maybe they remind me of him! This feels like a dialogue between artists across time. Artists are constantly in conversation, riffing off each other’s ideas. Each adding their own voice to the conversation. The image is not fixed, but always changing, depending on who is looking at it.