Studioportret van een onbekende vrouw c. 1915 - 1930

This small studio portrait of an unknown woman, made by Laurus van Groningen, looks like it was made with light and shadow. There's something about the soft greys and browns of the photo that make me think about the past. The woman's gaze is so direct, but there’s also a sense of distance, like she's looking beyond the camera, beyond us. I wonder what it was like to be her, standing in that studio, the photographer adjusting the light, maybe feeling a little self-conscious. You can almost feel the stillness and silence of the moment. It makes me think about how we try to capture ourselves and others, how we use images to remember, to understand. Photography, like painting, is just another way of trying to freeze a moment in time, to hold onto something that's always slipping away. And it's always a conversation with other artists, other ways of seeing.