Wanda Tuerlinckx – Androids & Crayons

In the 19th century, portrait photographs were often touched up with pencil or crayon. Irregularities were corrected, but it also went further; for example, by adjusting the hairstyle or colouring the clothing. Fine lines were drawn to improve the image or black retouching paint was applied in an early version of Photoshop. This created an idealised version of the subjects, just as androids can be seen as perfected replicas. Wanda Tuerlinckx takes photo portraits of androids with a wooden view camera from 1880, the same type used for many of the portraits from more than a century ago. Appearing side by side, her images and the portraits play with our perceptions and the uncanny valley.

32 pages, 16 x 23 cm, softcover, Van Zoetendaal (Amsterdam).