Photoline Picture Packages

[Jan Dominquez]

It is almost three and a half centuries ago and yet when analysing the pictures, time appears to have stood still! From large poetic works to a series of tranquil portraits, one gets to see iconic Vermeer figures with modern features. Despite all the differences, the image remains intact. Is the subject reading a letter or Instagramming? Could it be that anyone could be the girl (or boy) with a Pearl earring.

In December 2020 and January 2021, the Mauritshuis Museum The Hague has shown a beautifully made video on a large screen in front of the museum with the photos of Girls (and Guys) with pearls. The connecting message: 'Our Girl. Your Girl. The Girl belongs to everyone.'

Girls with Pearls was featured on monumental digital large screens in May 2022 as a special feature of the MvVO Art Show at the iconic New York City landmark the Oculus at the Westfield World Trade Center, Manhattan.

A beautiful photo book of the Girls with Pearls is now also available. Are you interreted and would you like to order a photo book? Send an email via the contact page of this website or send an email to in...@photoline.nl

The photo book is also available at the museum shop of the Old and New Church Delft, Museum Prinsenhof, Vermeer Center Delft, VVV Delft, Mauritshuis. Or via the Percell sales, www.percellshop.nl and bol.com

Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan
Aboard Air Force One
En route Topeka, Kansas9:53 A.M. ESTMR. McCLELLAN:All right, good morning, everybody. Let me run through theday real quick. The President had his usual briefing before we departed. When we arrive at Kansas State he'll do the phone call to the March forLife participants back in D.C.That's an open press event, so you'll hearthe remarks. He'll be talking about the steps we've been taking to helpbuild a culture of life in America. It's their 33rd annual March for Lifeevent.And then following that, the President will be speaking to the Kansas StateLandon -- Kansas State University's Landon Lecture Series. And I gave alittle bit of a preview of that on Friday. To add to that a little bit,what the President will be doing is sharing some of his thoughts on thebroader war on terrorism, both what we're doing abroad and what we're doingat home. And I'm talking about the Patriot Act and the National SecurityAgency's terrorist surveillance program.But then he'll kind of shake up the traditional lecture series, and spendmuch of the time engaging the audience and taking questions. And this is,I think, one of the largest audiences he has taken questions before. Several thousand students will be there. I know there will be about athousand military personnel from Fort Riley will be present. And then thefaculty, a number of the -- most of the faculty I think will be there, andothers, as well. So you're looking around -- probably around 9,000 peoplein attendance for the event.Then following the event, the President is going to be meeting with afamily of a fallen soldier. This is a Army Reserve -- Sergeant who was inthe Army Reserves who lost his life in Afghanistan in December of 2005.Then we go back to the White House. The President will be participating inthe photo opportunity with the U.S. Walker Cup team, and congratulate themon winning the 40th Walker Cup Match.And then this evening the Presidentand Mrs. Bush will be hosting a retirement dinner in honor of ChairmanGreenspan, as he gets ready to depart the Federal Reserve.General Myers and Senator Roberts are on board, with us as well. And as Imentioned the other day, General Hayden, I think it's right about now, isgiving remarks to the National Press Club, and then he'll be taking somequestions there, as well.That's all I've got to begin with.Q Scott, how was the ticketing handled for today's event? How were theyhanded out?MR. McCLELLAN:Through the university and through the base.Q No Republican Party?MR. McCLELLAN:We typically give to some of the congressional offices, sothey may have had some -- but it would have been a relatively small numberof tickets. Like I said, I think you're going to have some 6,000 studentsor so attending the event.Q On the Abramoff pictures.You had said last week that if we hadsomething specific, that you would then explain further about theconnections between the President and the White House and Mr. Abramoff. Can you talk about the specific circumstances surrounding these pictures,and exactly the range of contacts that Mr. Abrmaoff had?MR. McCLELLAN:I can talk -- let me repeat some of what I have saidpreviously. First of all, the Department of Justice is holding Mr.Abramoff and others to account for the wrongdoing they engaged in. Thewrongdoing they engaged in was outrageous, and they should be held toaccount. And that's what the administration's Department of Justice isdoing.They're also continuing to investigate whether others wereinvolved, as well, as they should. And they will continue to pursue it tothe fullest.Now in terms of the reports about some of these pictures, as we havepreviously indicated, the President did not have a personal relationshipwith Mr. Abramoff. But we also indicated that it should not be surprisingthat he might have taken some pictures with him at some of the widelyattended events that we know both attended. What I indicated previouslywas, if you've got some specific issue that you need to bring to myattention, fine. But what we're not going to do is engage in a fishingexpedition that has nothing to do with the investigation.Q Why not -- why are you guys resistant to open this here? What isthere to hide, or why not just say, here are the contacts he had, here arethe issues he talked about when he came to the White House, here are thepeople --MR. McCLELLAN:Well, I did do a check, and I indicated to you exactly whatI just told you. I indicated to you that there were a few staff-levelmeetings that he attended at least -- he attended two holiday receptions,in 2001 and 2002. There are some 400 to 500 people at each of thosegatherings. And of course there's a photo line at those holidayreceptions. The President has participated in tens upon thousands of photolines or pictures in photo lines over the course of the last five years. He's taken pictures with many of you. But like I said, we're just notgoing to get into a fishing expedition that has nothing to do with theinvestigation.Though we have been very straightforward about that, whenasked about it.Q I understand that. But why not just say, and just get it over with --say, here are the issues that he talked about -- he came to the White Houseto talk about, here's who he met with, and then move on. Why not --MR. McCLELLAN:I'm not aware of anything that has anything to do wit theinvestigation.I know that there's some Democrats that want to try to makethis -- try to engage in partisan attacks. But what we do know from mediareports is that Mr. Abramoff gave directly or indirectly to Democrats andRepublicans. Trying to say there's more to it than the President taking apicture in a photo line is just absurd.Q Ford Motor Company is today announcing just staggering layoffs. Doesthe President know about it; is there anything the federal government cando for those thousands of employees; what does it say about the economy?MR. McCLELLAN:Very aware of -- aware of their points. I don't know ifthey have made the announcement yet before we had left. I know that theywere going to be making an announcement. And first of all, for anyone thatloses their job, we are concerned about it. And that's why it's importantin the changing economy that we live in to make sure that workers have theskills they need to fill the high-paying, high-growth jobs that areavailable. Our economy is growing strong -- 4.6 million jobs created sinceMay of 2003, 400,000 jobs -- new jobs created just in the last two months,and an unemployment rate that is below 5 percent, and below the averages ofthe '70s, '80s and '90s.There are a lot of indications that our economy is growing strong, butwe're also in a changing economy. And what we've got to do is make surethat we focus on making sure workers have the skills they need to be ableto fill the kind of jobs that are being created. These are good jobs,these are high paying jobs. As the President pointed out recently, workersbetween -- I think it was like 18 and 39 will, in this day and age, will gothrough some 10 different jobs over the course of that time period. Andthat's why it's important that we focus on education. That's what thisPresident is doing. And we also have to focus on making sure that we'reclosing the wage gap. The President is going to continue talking aboutthat.Q Does the Ford situation speak to anything larger in the U.S. economy? Is it not a problem for the U.S. economy?MR. McCLELLAN:Well, anytime someone loses a job we're concerned about it,and we're concerned about the community. And that's why we've got tocontinue to act to build on the pro-growth policies that we have put inplace.We want to make sure that working families can keep more of theirhard-earned money. And that's what -- we put policies in place to do that. The last thing we need to be doing at this point is raising taxes.We've also got to make sure that we are helping workers to fill the jobs ofthis changing economy.And that's what we'll continue to do. We'llcontinue to act and build upon those pro-growth policies. But I think it'sclear if you talk to -- most independent economists will say that theeconomy is growing strong, and they see further growth ahead. I think thatsome have indicated that the more than 4 percent growth we saw in the lastquarter won't necessarily continue going forward, I think all expectationsare that it's going to be down a little bit this next quarter, but thatwe'd see continued strong growth over the course of the next year. Andthat's -- Congress must continue acting.Q Scott, it's been three days since the deadline has passed forChristian Monitor reporter Jill Carroll. And just what is theadministration doing now to intervene?Are there negotiations going on atall? What kind of updates, what's the situation?MR. McCLELLAN:You're aware of our policy on negotiations, and the reasonwhy we don't, because of the message it would send to terrorists. Butanytime there is an American held hostage, it is a high priority. And ourthoughts and prayers are with the families of all Americans that are heldhostage, wherever they may be.And Ms. Carroll and the others are apriority. We want to see them returned safely. It's something we areconstantly focused on and working to achieve.Anything else?Q Make sure I understand -- you said General Myers, Senator Roberts. Anyone else?MR. McCLELLAN:White House staff.Q Are the questions today screened, pre-screened?MR. McCLELLAN:No. They can ask whatever they want, and the Presidentlooks forward to it.Q Is he going to talk about Iran at all?MR. McCLELLAN:Well, it's not necessarily formal remarks. We'll see whatquestions are asked, as well. It's really focused on the broader war onterrorism. I expect he'll cover a little bit on Afghanistan, talk aboutIraq and our strategy for winning there, and talk about, like I said, someof the tools we're using at home to prevent attacks, like the Patriot Actand the National Security Agency's terrorist surveillance program, which istargeted at al Qaeda communications coming into or going out of the UnitedStates. We'll see.Q Iran is calling for a return to the nuclear talks. Are you guysprepared to do that?MR. McCLELLAN:Well, I think you've seen, by some of their comments andactions recently, that they're only continuing to further isolatethemselves. We remain engaged in close consultations with Europeans andothers about the way forward. There is an emergency board meeting comingup on February 2nd. And I think that there is a clear desire on the partof the international community to refer the matter to the Security Council. There is a growing consensus within the board. We're continuing to talkto others to broaden that consensus. We think a very clear message needsto be sent to the regime in Iran, that its behavior will not be tolerated. Its non-compliance is unacceptable. It continues to defy the internationalcommunity, and fails to comply with its safeguard obligations.And that'swhy we believe it's important to send a very clear message to the regime.We stand with the Iranian people. This is a regime that is not acting inthe best interests of its people, and only further isolating itself fromthe rest of the international community. But you can't have negotiationsgoing on while the regime is ignoring its agreements with the internationalcommunity.Q Scott, yesterday on the talk shows several -- the lawmakers suggestedthat the President should ask Congress for any fixes that he might see inthe FISA law. Is the President inclined to ask Congress for any changes?MR. McCLELLAN:Well, a couple of things. This goes to the terroristsurveillance program we were just talking about. It is -- again, this is atargeted effort aimed at al Qaeda communications coming into or out of theUnited States.It is a limited, hot pursuit effort to prevent and detectattacks inside America. And it is a vital tool. It is such a vital toolthat the President believes it was important to brief key congressionalleaders about it -- about the program and the activities conducted underit. We've done that more than a dozen times since it was first authorized.We continue to brief members of Congress about this vital tool. In thosediscussions, there was conversation -- my understanding is that there wereconversations about this very issue. And the people that were involved inthose congressional briefings felt that it was best to proceed as we were. I mean, we will always continue to work closely with Congress on theseissues. There are hearings coming up.We'll continue to work with them.But the President has the clear authority to do this. And it's within hisconstitutional authority, it's within the authority that was granted to himby Congress. All federal courts that have looked at issues like this haveupheld that authority.And in terms of FISA, that's an important tool, aswell. And we continue to use the FISA tool. General Hayden will betalking about that, I think, in his remarks today.But this -- FISA was created in a different time period and didn'tanticipate some of the issues we'd have to be dealing with with all thetechnological advances that we've seen in the last few decades. And theAmerican people clearly want us to do everything within our power toprotect them from further attacks. We know that the enemy is determined tostrike us again. It is a sophisticated and deadly enemy. And that's whythe President is going to continue doing everything within his power todisrupt plots and prevent attacks.Q He doesn't think there's anything that needs fixing, then?MR. McCLELLAN:Well, like I said, this very issue came up -- whether ornot there needs to be changes in the law -- during the consultations withCongress, with the congressional leaders, and to reflect what thePresident's authority is. The President already has the authority to dothis. But we work very closely with Congress.That's why we briefCongress, that's why we briefed Congress more than 12 times about this veryprogram, the appropriate congressional leaders, and we will continue to doso.Q -- FISA is outdated, why not change it, why not ask Congress to changeit so that it reflects the modern era, modern technology?MR. McCLELLAN:I didn't say it was outdated. We use FISA. FISA is animportant tool. It didn't anticipate some of the technological issues thatneeded to be addressed through this. This is about addressing a specificproblem that was highlighted in the 9/11 Commission report. We had two alQaeda members operating inside the United States and we didn't find outabout their communications until it was too late.Q But why not make FISA usable now, in the modern era?MR. McCLELLAN:I just indicated, we'll continue to work with Congress. But the President has the clear authority to do what he's doing, and that'swhat the American people expect him to do, to act fully within the law, andto do everything he can to protect them.And I think there are some Democratic leaders that have continued to engagein misleading, false attacks about this vital tool. And we're going tocontinue to educate the American people about this vital tool.Q You don't think it's a false attack to say that Democrats are sayingthat we don't want to monitor al Qaeda calls? That's not exactly anaccurate statement.MR. McCLELLAN:Democrats are attacking this very vital tool in false ways. All you have to do is go look at the remarks, when they talk about thelegal authorization. I mean, what I said yesterday, it defies commonsense that the President would go and brief members of Congress about thisauthorization if he thought he was operating outside of his authority. They were fully aware of this program.Democrats didn't start criticizingit until it -- until the unauthorized disclosure of this program to The NewYork Times.And it's important for the American people to understand what thisauthorization is and what it is not. And that's why General Hayden isgiving his remarks today; that's why the President is going to be talkingabout this in his remarks, as well. Now some Democrats want to try to haveit both ways. And that's what this is about.Q Thanks.MR. McCLELLAN:Thank you.END 10:11 A.M. EST Printer-Friendly Version Email this page to a friend Issues

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