Portret van een meisje 1882 - 1927

Curator: Ah, this photograph, “Portret van een meisje”, captured sometime between 1882 and 1927 by Carel Frederik Cordes using the albumen print process, it has a delicate ethereal quality to it. What's your first take? Editor: There's an immediacy here, isn't there? Despite the antiquated process, this little girl…she’s almost haunting in her direct gaze. The sepia tones seem to distill her very essence, placing us in conversation across time. Curator: Indeed. The sailor collar, a recurring symbol of youthful innocence, doesn’t quite cloak the maturity in her eyes, does it? What do you see within this symbolism? Editor: Oh, so much. The sailor suit in photographs of the time, and even paintings, served as this symbol of children put on display. Her slightly mussed hair offsets this stiffly forced symbol—there’s something else lurking underneath. Her unsmiling expression betrays a weariness perhaps beyond her years. Are we seeing the weight of expectations, or simply the stillness required by the long exposure? Curator: That’s an interesting point. Photography at this stage often froze its subjects. Yet there is something in that steadiness which arrests the viewer, as you say. How the cultural reading informs our present one is, as always, the fascinating layer. Editor: Exactly. The image itself becomes a relic imbued with longing. Those little ringlets framing her face speak volumes; a tangible softness, contradicting a steely reserve and hinting at her identity. You just want to reach through time and hold her. It feels as if an encounter has been frozen; an impression preserved as we consider ourselves today. Curator: Beautifully put. And thinking of how photography had become more widespread across the late 19th century; its democratization, meant these personal relics could start to exist across class, gender, age in totally unique ways… That for me resonates looking into her unyielding stare. Editor: Right? She's just pulled me down a spiral of what that exact democratization means when paired with the social standards placed on young women in this time… I could look into that albumen-print-window forever. Thank you.