Portret van een zittende baby in witte jurk 1895 - 1908

Editor: Here we have "Portret van een zittende baby in witte jurk," or "Portrait of a Sitting Baby in White Dress." It's an early gelatin-silver print photograph, dating from between 1895 and 1908. It is part of the Rijksmuseum collection and the photographer is E. v.d. Kerkhoff. The baby's expression makes me curious: What's going through such a young person's mind, sitting for a formal portrait? How do you interpret this work? Curator: Ah, that face! It has this incredibly compelling intensity. But look closely, beyond just the captivating expression; it's also about time itself, isn't it? Those early photographs were such an endeavor. Think about it – the cumbersome equipment, the lighting... all for capturing such fleeting moments. It gives a feeling of frozen time to me, almost like amber. It suggests stories within stories. I imagine this child’s family – their hopes, dreams, and the very act of carefully dressing and posing the baby in such a dress! Doesn’t that whisper of ambition, of a social striving inherent within genre-painting? Editor: It's strange to think of photography as laborious given how easy it is now! Curator: Indeed! We can now effortlessly document our fleeting moments. So does this older image have a feeling of loss about it, do you think? Is the baby holding onto something? Editor: I think they might be holding some flowers? I see your point about 'frozen time' as that feeling of an era long past comes to mind... so, would that suggest Kerkhoff was striving to portray more than a mere snapshot? Curator: Precisely! Or what someone *wished* to preserve; which are not always the same thing. What do *you* make of the fact the photograph is a Gelatin Silver Print, a technique used widely at the time for its high-quality, sharp and glossy images? It became such a perfect way to memorialize loved ones! Editor: That adds another layer to it! It feels very carefully considered. It’s much more than *just* a picture. I’ll definitely be pondering that idea of carefully preserved moments for a while! Curator: Exactly. We both gained fresh eyes, I hope, through this lovely dialogue. The past keeps on informing the future – a very moving thing, I think.