Portret van Auguste Lumière before 1905

Curator: So here we have a photograph, originally published before 1905, titled 'Portret van Auguste Lumière.' Editor: It’s so still. Caught in time inside this old book. A ghost in the machine before the machines were even fully there. Curator: Indeed. The artwork is printed on the pages of a book, which focuses on photography. I think the visual juxtaposition is significant here. A photograph inside a book ABOUT photography. It makes you wonder about its first audience. Editor: Absolutely. And Lumière! He looks very contained, doesn’t he? His energy all bottled up in that suit, inside this frame, held within the pages of knowledge. Curator: It is somewhat formal, but I also detect a deep focus and intention. Note the slight smirk on his face and the intelligent sparkle in his eyes. It’s like he knows something the rest of us don't. Editor: The way this man is framed within the photograph, held captive by its black borders feels powerful but a bit eerie. There's something so decisive, like he's been dissected by the printed text. I can sense the birth of cinema somehow within the very ink of this book. Curator: What an incredible perspective. It makes one reflect on how images accumulate history and meaning. He becomes a symbolic representation of early cinema. The book itself becoming a kind of reliquary. Editor: Looking again, he's an icon. Auguste in amber... A relic within a history of light.