Portret van Charles Darwin before 1901

Here is a photographic portrait of Charles Darwin, captured by Julia Margaret Cameron sometime in the 1860s or 70s. It’s printed in a book, maybe an album. Looking at Darwin’s furrowed brow and the soft focus, I think about Cameron trying to catch his likeness, and Darwin trying to sit still for it! There's something about the blurred edges that reminds me of painting, like a Whistler portrait, maybe because it’s such a contrast from how sharp photos are today. You can see his white beard and the serious set of his mouth – he looks like he's thinking hard about evolution, or maybe about lunch. I imagine he's impatient and eager to get back to his observations and theories. It reminds me that all artists – photographers, scientists, painters – are just trying to figure stuff out, one experiment, one brushstroke, one snapshot at a time. There’s a conversation happening here between art and science, between observation and invention.