Joseph Jessurun de Mesquita was the odd man out in the group of artists and writers that came together in Amsterdam in the late 1880s. He wrote a guide for amateur photographers and was engaged to take photographs by the Leiden National Museum of Antiquities. Above all, however, he re-invented photography. He portrayed his good friends, including Breitner, Israels, Kloos, Gorter, and the composer Diepenbrock very directly and close up.