Zes portretten van kennissen van Herman Besselaar en Berti Hoppe, poserend bij een auto c. 1930

Berti Hoppe made this photograph, "Zes portretten van kennissen van Herman Besselaar en Berti Hoppe, poserend bij een auto," and honestly, it's the casualness that grabs me. It's like a snapshot, but six times over, pinned to a page. The grayscale tones feel like a memory, softened and distant. You can almost smell the metallic tang of the car, see the dust on the road. What strikes me is the way the subjects arrange themselves around the car. They are interacting with the machine as a physical object; leaning on it, standing on it, not revering it. The way the light falls, catching the gleam of the chrome, reminds me of Edward Hopper, that same sense of everyday life elevated to something iconic. There is something very humble about this piece, something very human, and it makes you realize the power of a photo, as a record of real people in real time.