Isabel Wachenheimer met haar moeder Else Wachenheimer-Moos in de woning van de familie Wachenheimer (Van Aerssenlaan 22), zomer 1939, Rotterdam 1939

Editor: This is a page from a photo album with snapshots of Isabel Wachenheimer and her mother Else, taken in the summer of 1939. The inscription suggests they were taken at their home in Rotterdam. It feels very intimate, like a stolen moment in time. What can you tell me about these images? Curator: As a materialist, I’m drawn to the physical object itself. It's photography, of course, a mass-produced medium, presented as part of a larger album. The album and photographs themselves are material witnesses to a very specific social and historical context. Rotterdam in 1939…what kind of labor would it have taken to produce these images? Editor: That’s interesting! I was focused on the subjects and their relationship, but you are right. What do you mean? Curator: I wonder, how were these pictures produced, processed, and disseminated? Who handled them? And how does the seemingly mundane act of capturing these images become so much more potent considering the historical circumstances - specifically, the persecution the family would face in the following years. The casual snapshots highlight the ordinary aspects of their lives, soon to be disrupted. What can you learn from the background in each of the images? Editor: That really shifts my perspective. I was just seeing them as portraits, but thinking about the production and labor involved...it’s heavy to realize these happy, routine moments are being captured just before the war. I hadn't considered how accessible photography made images, creating this intimate family record, and then considering what happened after… Curator: Exactly. It's a complex intersection of material production and human experience. Editor: Thanks, I definitely have a lot to think about now.