Portret van een onbekende vrouw c. 1900 - 1920

Jean Vaessen made this small photograph, Portret van een onbekende vrouw, with a camera, of course! I am interested in the story of the unknown woman. Did she like posing for the photo? Did she pick the dress, the necklace? Did she think about what would happen to the picture once she passed? When I look at the picture, I think about the making of it. How a photograph captures a moment in time, but also the way that moment is constructed through the choices of both the photographer and the sitter. There's a kind of conversation happening. The composition, the lighting, the pose—all these elements contribute to the story being told. And then I think about all the portraits, all the photographs that have come before and after. The act of image-making is one big dialogue across time. Each artist, each sitter, each image, riffing on what came before, pushing the conversation forward. It's an ongoing process, an exploration of what it means to be seen, to be remembered, to be human.