Portret van een vrouw met halsketting met medaillon 1899 - 1908

This little photograph, made by Verbeke-Schodts Fils, captures a woman with a locket. I feel like it’s been sitting in someone’s attic for years, covered in dust. I try to imagine the act of capturing the image. The artist adjusting the light, maybe in a dark room, focusing the lens, and then...waiting. She stands still, trying not to blink. It's a different kind of portraiture than painting; but shares with it the desire to grasp something about a person, to make them stay a little longer. I think about the imperfections. The surface has been pitted like the skin of an orange. The deterioration, the dust, it’s all part of its story, a reminder that everything changes, ages, and fades. I think of other image makers, like Gerhard Richter, who play with focus and blur to explore how we see, remember, and experience the world. The photographer, like the painter, creates a space for us to think, to feel, and to imagine.