Portret van Emma, koningin-regentes der Nederlanden, en Juliana, koningin der Nederlanden 1920

Herman Deutmann made this photograph of Queen Emma and Princess Juliana, sometime in the early 20th century. Look at the way the light falls, soft but contrast-y, a real dance between clarity and obscurity. The texture here feels almost palpable, right? The way the light catches the little princesses hat and dress, the feathery fronds on Queen Emma's hat. All the detail in the clothing, but the background is soft. It's about touch, almost like running your hand over a very slightly out of focus memory. I'm thinking about how photography is about time, it is about what is kept and what fades. It reminds me of how Gerhard Richter would paint from photographs to explore the nature of memory and history. In a way, all art is a conversation, right? Between artists, between ideas, between the seen and the unseen.