Portret van een onbekend meisje met hoed en handmof 1900 - 1915

This carte de visite portrait of an unknown girl with a hat and muff was made by Theodor Liebert. I wonder what it was like for her to sit for this photo? Was she bored, or excited? Did she know that this picture would be around for over a hundred years, and that strangers would be looking at it and wondering about her? She looks so serious! I wonder if she would have preferred to be running around outside. The backdrop looks like a painting itself. It's such a funny thing about old portrait photography: the subjects are right there in front of you, but somehow far away too, across time. But maybe not so far… I think of all the ways in which the past is always here, with us, informing how we see the world and make art, and how one day our work will be part of someone else's past. It’s one big conversation, isn’t it? And this little photo is part of that too.