Thelma Pauw van Wieldrecht als anderhalfjarige in een kinderwagen met daarnaast een nanny Possibly 1909

Here we have a photograph by Henry Pauw van Wieldrecht, capturing his daughter Thelma at one and a half years old in a pram, with her nanny; it’s a moment frozen in shades of gray. The photograph gives us a layered experience, each tone carefully considered, the artist working with what he has available to him. You can almost feel the texture of the paper, the grain of the image, see the way the light falls. It’s all part of the feeling. The wheel spokes especially are really evocative. The darks and lights do something to you. It has a painterly quality, and reminds me in some ways of Gerhard Richter, the way the subject seems both present and somehow dissolving at the same time. Is it real? Is it memory? Is it something in between?