Zes foto's van een reis naar Egypte 1927

This is Carolina Onnen’s photo album page, dating from a trip to Egypt in March 1927, using black and white photography and simple annotations. What strikes me about this album page is how the different photographs create a sequence that almost feels cinematic. The images move from wide shots of monuments and landscapes, to more intimate scenes of daily life. You can see her working out how to arrange the photos and writing, and there’s something kind of personal and intimate about the way the work is created. Look at the way the photos are arranged on the cardboard page. There’s a sense of spontaneity, but also a careful consideration of composition and balance. There's a central image, surrounded by smaller photographs, creating a rhythmic pattern. It’s like a visual diary, with each image capturing a moment in time and a specific emotional tone. Think about how we curate our own image feeds today and how this creates a similar sense of ourselves. Like the work of Sophie Calle or Nan Goldin, Onnen captures a sense of memory and time passing through the arrangement of images. There’s a raw and honest quality to the work that resonates with the outsider art tradition.