Seyss Inquart inspecteert het Totenkopf Bataljon Possibly 1940 - 1946

This photograph, taken by Polygoon, captures Seyss-Inquart inspecting the Totenkopf Battalion. What strikes me is the stark contrast between the individuals and the masses, a study in how power dynamics get visualized. The image is primarily black and white, lending it an archival quality and intensifying the grimness of the subject matter. The texture is grainy, which obscures fine details, but sharpens the sense of a documentary realism. The perspective gives a sense of the individual's stance against the backdrop of so many anonymous figures. Look at the way the figures are arranged and cropped, the lines of the battalion are rigid, the figure in the foreground has broken this rank. This image reminds me of some of Gerhard Richter’s explorations of history through photography, where the act of seeing itself becomes a moral question. Ultimately, this work reminds us that art can provoke questions, without necessarily providing answers.