Twee foto's van drie kinderen op het IJ en op de Zeeburgerdijk, 1923 Possibly 1923

Editor: Here we have Hendrik Herman van den Berg's gelatin silver print, "Twee foto's van drie kinderen op het IJ en op de Zeeburgerdijk, 1923," or roughly translated, "Two Photos of Three Children on the IJ and on the Zeeburgerdijk." There’s a kind of melancholic stillness to these two portraits. What strikes you when you look at them? Curator: Well, consider the socio-political context. These are images from 1923, not long after the First World War, a period of significant social change. These portraits, with their somewhat formal poses, speak to a certain middle-class aspiration for order and respectability. Note the different settings: One evokes the industrial might of the port; the other, the stoicism and human attempt at land reclamation in the Zeeburgerdijk. Does the arrangement of the two pictures next to each other suggests to you some commentary? Editor: Perhaps a commentary on progress and modernity, placing the industrial alongside the more traditional rural landscape? I am also intrigued by how these images exist within an album, a very specific kind of domestic, bourgeois object. How does that influence their meaning? Curator: Exactly. They are intended for a private audience, framing the subjects within a particular family narrative. We also should consider the role of photography itself. Photography, even in the 1920s, had begun to democratize portraiture. Instead of only the wealthy being immortalized in portraits, a wider circle of society now has access. Does this make the work a formal historical document, a sentimental photo, or both? Editor: It seems to be walking a line between capturing a specific time and place and reflecting a broader shift in how people wanted to be seen and remembered. Thank you, that's helpful! Curator: Indeed. Looking closely helps us understand art as both a personal and historical document.