Twee portretten van een paar geliefden en een portret van een vrouw 1900 - 1930

This is a page of photographs in an album, probably made by Georg Gerlach & Co. Isn’t it interesting how the colours are so heightened, it's almost as if they have been painted on? The way the tones have been applied gives a very particular feel to the images. It's like the photographers were actively shaping the reality of the scenes and not just documenting them. The purple in the central image gives a dreamlike quality to the portrait, and it’s a colour rarely seen in portraiture. Look at how the application of colour transforms the photograph into something else entirely. It reminds me a little bit of the Photo-Secession movement and its idea of Pictorialism. Like those artists, these photographers are treating photography as a painterly medium, manipulating the images to create a more expressive effect. But it also goes further by fully embracing artifice. This is a way of seeing that prioritizes feeling and imagination over accuracy. It's a reminder that art, in all its forms, is about interpretation and transformation.