• Used postcard, cutout
  
• 8,9 × 13,7 cm
• Signed and numbered art piece
• 2020

These photo postcards are part of an ongoing project: the construction of an imaginary history of Dutch photography (see also denooycollection.com). In this context, they are the work of the fictitious painter Emma Couperus, who was active during the first half of the 20th century. She specialized in paintings for photo studios and was very successful at it. As part of her payment, she always asked for a photo portrait of someone in front of her painting. More often than not, she would dislike the portrait thinking it spoiled her painting. Her reaction was to simply cut the portrayed person out of the picture.

Arjan de Nooy likes to play with photographs. Using his own as well as found images, he devises stories and theories. These may have a fictional character in which his own role can vary from art historian to feminist, from collector to ornithologist.