Naakte jongen met toorts before 1916

Adelaide Hanscom Leeson made this small photograph titled "Naakte jongen met toorts" which translates to "Naked boy with torch." The image has an ethereal quality, a soft-focus portrait of a young boy holding what appears to be a candle. The monochromatic palette and delicate handling of light and shadow evoke a dreamlike atmosphere. It reminds me of the way artists like Julia Margaret Cameron approached photography, transforming the everyday into something mythical and timeless. What was Hanscom Leeson thinking when she made this? Was she looking back to antiquity and reimagining it through a modern lens? Maybe thinking of the way the Renaissance painters elevated ordinary people to the status of gods and goddesses? It makes you consider the conversations that take place across the ages; how one artist picks up the thread of another, reinterpreting it, pushing it forward. And how, as viewers, we are invited to participate in this ongoing exchange, bringing our own perspectives and experiences to bear on the works before us.