Gezin Onnen tijdens een vaartocht 1911 - 1912

Curator: This is "Gezin Onnen tijdens een vaartocht", or "Family Onnen During a Boat Trip", a photographic work likely from 1911 or 1912. What strikes you first? Editor: The sepia tones give it an immediate sense of history and nostalgia. I notice the multiple images, arranged on what looks like a scrapbook page; almost as if we're viewing a collection of memories displayed together. Curator: Precisely. Let’s consider that format: the arrangement hints at the way memory functions, non-linear, fragmented, yet collectively constructing a narrative about family and leisure during this period. Note the clothing, the poses; there's a definite emphasis on bourgeois ideals of domesticity. Editor: From a material standpoint, the albumen print is interesting, a process that would have been relatively common at the time, highlighting how photography became more accessible for personal documentation within middle class families. What do you think that says about photography? Curator: The medium itself plays a key role. This type of photography contributed to defining the representation of family at a particular social rank; yet we could ask if what we see represents actually enjoyed experiences or performative expressions in relation to established visual codes of the era. Gender obviously enters into play too, with the presumed female subjects being portrayed as refined in posture while leisurely spending time with their presumed family. Editor: Definitely a posed and stylized version of reality. But even these staged elements give insights into the social mores, how people actively shaped their self-representation for personal use. How that album becomes the receptacle of family experiences – real or imagined! - is such an intimate engagement with materials and the photographic process. Curator: In closing, I’m reminded of how images become both reflections and projections; mirroring expectations but also contributing to construct realities related to identity. Editor: And for me, considering this particular collection highlights not just the photographs themselves, but the broader practice of photography as a form of both consumption and careful craft.