Portret van Johannes van Zijll de Jong 1930 - 1935

Curator: This is an intriguing image; let's talk about this silver gelatin print, "Portret van Johannes van Zijll de Jong," dating from the early 1930s. Editor: My initial feeling is melancholy. The tones, the framing within what appears to be a photo album page… It speaks of remembrance, doesn't it? Curator: Precisely! The very choice of gelatin-silver, a dominant photographic printing process during that time, speaks volumes about the accessibility and reproducibility of image making. This method allowed for a certain democratization of the portrait. We see here a portrait of, perhaps, an ordinary individual. Editor: Ordinary perhaps, yet the image itself has an oddly unsettling, yet somehow captivating, presence. Look at his hat, slightly angled. The hat and dark uniform-esque jacket imply authority, formality, but that mustache adds a certain quirkiness. The trees in the background contribute to the symbolism as well; they represent his life force, which seems strong against a simple domestic space Curator: You bring up an excellent point. If we consider that it comes from the interwar era, these garments signal a changing societal landscape. Uniforms and certain types of attire denoted function. It's interesting to consider what labor he’s connected to. Editor: There’s something also profoundly vulnerable about him, isn’t there? It almost feels as though we are catching a fleeting moment. That kind of feeling links this man to universal themes about mankind Curator: And what's compelling here is the fact that it’s preserved on this material, almost suspended in this album. He gains this sense of enduring presence thanks to the method and choices related to making the photograph, how it was treated and presented, even as this face recedes into time. Editor: I see a longing in the photograph's texture now— the silver reacting over time, changing as we ourselves do. Thank you. Curator: Thank you. That certainly gave me new material for thought.