Standbeeld van Willem van Oranje aan het Noordeinde in Den Haag c. 1870

Editor: This is a photograph taken around 1870 by Christiaan Hendrik Adriaan Mirande. It depicts the statue of William of Orange in Noordeinde, The Hague. It has such a still and serene quality to it. It almost feels as though the photo suspends this grand statue in time. What's your take? What do you see in this work? Curator: It's uncanny, isn't it? That liminal space where history ossifies into bronze and film. What fascinates me is how Mirande captures not just the monument, but also the everyday unfolding beneath it – the figures lurking at the base, like shadows of history itself. And isn’t it wonderful the way the soft, diffused light gives the whole scene this ghostly, dreamlike aura? Makes you wonder, doesn't it, about the stories these old stones could tell? What secrets linger in the air around the statue, whispered on the wind? Editor: It's almost like they're ghosts of their time. Is that tension something that resonates across similar portrait works of this period? Curator: Absolutely. Photography, then, was a portal, of sorts – a means to capture, perhaps even conjure, a spirit. These early photographers were alchemists, weren't they? Turning light and chemistry into frozen moments in time. Portraits become relics of a bygone age and trigger emotions from very, very long ago. I think, often, what if I had walked in their shoes? Editor: It makes you realize history wasn’t that long ago. It's amazing how photography manages to straddle both the historical and the personal. It almost makes me want to find my own ghostly monument to capture! Curator: Maybe it will! Never stop observing, that's what is really needed. And maybe a little bit of soul!