Familieportret met vader, moeder en twee kinderen 1929

This vintage family portrait by Hermine Auguste Klebusch presents us with a tableau of stillness. The monochrome palette is so different to how we document our families these days, when every image is saturated with colour! The texture of the original print is so smooth it almost feels like glass, which somehow adds to the sense of distance and otherness, as though we are observing the scene through a pane of time. The composition is tight and formal; each family member is carefully positioned and posed, and yet I'm drawn to the slightly blurred figure of the child in the middle, a touch of imperfection that adds a human element. The way that the photograph is framed with a decorated border is interesting, it reminds me of collage and the way that artists often use found objects to add meaning to their work. Like a painting, this photograph invites us to contemplate not only what we see but also how we see.