Portret van een onbekende vrouw met een baby c. 1895 - 1908

This is a photograph of an unknown woman and her baby, made by E. v.d. Kerkhoff. It's small, intimate. The process is visible in the sepia tones, a kind of alchemy of light and chemistry. There's a dance between clarity and blur. The faces are sharp, but the edges soften, like memory fading. It's all about surface, the slickness of the print, the way light bounces off the paper. Look at the baby's tiny toes, so precisely rendered, against the blurry background. It's a microcosm of the whole image, sharp details dissolving into softness. This reminds me of Julia Margaret Cameron, another photographer who embraced the imperfections of the medium. Both artists remind us that art isn't about perfect representation, it's about capturing a feeling, a moment, a fleeting glimpse of humanity. It’s about celebrating the beauty of imperfection, the poetry of the incomplete.