Zes foto's van Guly Boissevain, Bertie Knowles en andere vrienden van Loentje Onnen 1910 - 1911

These photographs by Carolina Frederika Onnen, arranged in a grid on a scrapbook page, present a muted palette dominated by sepia tones and soft contrasts. The composition reflects an intimate glimpse into social circles, capturing friends in various casual poses and settings, with a handwritten caption beneath each. Formally, the photographs explore themes of memory and representation. The soft focus and faded quality lend a dreamlike aesthetic, blurring the boundaries between documentation and personal narrative. This intersection is a semiotic game where the signifier, the image, does not directly equate to the signified, the person. The varying poses and backdrops introduce a sense of dynamism within the static arrangement of images, suggesting the fleeting nature of moments captured and remembered. In its totality, the work operates as a structural study, offering insights into the construction of identity and social relationships through the lens of early photography, challenging the viewer to consider the subjective layering of perception and memory in historical documentation.