Willy Onnen met haar oom en tante 1913

This album page featuring “Willy Onnen met haar oom en tante” was made in 1918, by an anonymous artist. It’s a series of photographs, carefully arranged, like a collage. Look at the way these images are presented, how they interact with each other on the grey page. It gives a snapshot into a family, but also how we remember people. I’m drawn to the photo of the seated lady, and the man in the top hat standing behind the chair. There’s a tension between them, a sense of holding something back, that really resonates. Photography, like painting, is about selection and gesture. The framing, the pose, the composition – these are all choices that shape how we see and understand the world. It reminds me a bit of the work of Sophie Calle, who also explores themes of memory and identity through a combination of text and image. Ultimately, art is a conversation, a dialogue across time and space. This piece is a reminder that there are many ways of seeing, and that even the simplest image can hold a world of meaning.