Marba en Eckart Titzenthaler, kinderen van de fotograaf, op een balkon 1918 - 1919

Waldemar Titzenthaler made this photograph of his children, Marba and Eckart, using what looks like a standard camera and printing process of the time. It's amazing how the limitations of the medium can sometimes unlock so much creative potential. I love how Titzenthaler uses light and shadow to create a sense of intimacy and depth, but he’s also somehow flattened the image. The way the light filters through the curtain casts a soft, diffused glow on the children, which gives them an almost ethereal quality. But it’s the contrast between the dark interior and the bright exterior that really grabs me. It’s like a metaphor for the threshold between childhood innocence and the complexities of the adult world. The work of someone like Gerhard Richter comes to mind, who also played with the blurred and out-of-focus to create a sense of mystery. It reminds me that art is always a conversation across time, with each artist building on the ideas and techniques of those who came before.