I presume this was taken with an early Kodak camera (invented 1888), which produced round images, which I am personally obsessed with, especially for how the circular format makes everything seem as is viewed through a scope--and so all about watching, from some degree of remove-- i.e. voyeurism, and in this case feeling very much like surveillance. (This image was printed directly on card, rather than mounted to a Kodak mount, which is what one usually sees, so I'm not completely sure, but whatever the case, the effect is the same.) I love when vernacular photography and conceptual art converge, and this image, with solitary woman on the street in coat at dead center seeming very much the subject, makes me think of works by everyone from Sophie Calle to Vito Acconci to Jill Magid. And also, very much, Hitchcock. The drama is in the watching, the imagining, the mystery and the projected narrative. And in this case the simple notation on reverse, "The Hague, 1921," feels just right--global hub of international law and arbitration, the name of which Den Haag (anglicised as The Hague) derives from the Middle Dutch word hag(h)e, meaning "enclosure", or "hunting ground"--and which seems just the sort of city for tracking undercover agents through scopes!
4 1/4" x 3 1/4", very good condition.
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