Portret van een jonge man met stropdas 1893 - 1915

Johannes Leonardus van der Heijden made this intimate portrait of a young man with a tie at an undetermined time. It is small, only 84mm high. Looking at this sepia photograph, I imagine Van der Heijden trying to capture not just a likeness, but something of the young man’s spirit. I think of the patience involved, both from the photographer and his subject. The sepia tones give it such a nostalgic feel, almost like a memory fading at the edges. It makes me wonder what their relationship was, what the photographer said to make him smile—or not smile, as the case may be. What does the lack of a smile mean? This act of capturing someone's image, of trying to hold onto a moment in time, it’s an impulse that connects artists across centuries. We are all in conversation with one another, trying to make sense of the world through the act of creation. The meaning of this photograph is not fixed. It changes with each viewer, each time it’s seen.