Foto c. 1895 - 1925

This photograph, titled "Foto" was made by W.G. Hondius van den Broek using an early photographic process, and what strikes me most about it is the inversion of tones, the ghostly presence of the sitter set against a backdrop of images. Look closely at the image, where the light is seemingly reversed, and shadows become highlights. The process itself becomes a kind of mark-making, a collaboration between light, chemicals, and time. I like how the artist's hand is present but also absent, as the sitter gazes off into the distance, perhaps lost in thought or waiting for the exposure to finish. There's something both very deliberate and accidental about this moment. I'm put in mind of the early portraits of Julia Margaret Cameron, or the more recent work of artists like Gerhard Richter, who also use photography as a starting point for exploring the relationship between representation and abstraction. This image reminds us that art is always in conversation with the past, borrowing, and reimagining ideas across generations. In art, fixed meanings are overrated!