Landjahrlager 1935 in Wolmersdorf 1935 - 1938

This is an anonymous photo album page of Landjahrlager 1935 in Wolmersdorf. It’s a series of gelatin silver prints pasted onto a gray card; the prints are small, almost like snapshots. I notice how each of the photographs are contained by a kind of scalloped edge, and I like that. It gives me a sense of softness, like a paper doily. It’s a stark contrast to the images of organized, uniformed crowds and regimented interiors. Thinking about these images, I start to wonder who pasted these images down, what was their intention? Were they trying to frame the image of the land year camp in a certain way? The formal arrangement of the prints with their scalloped edges reminds me a little of Kurt Schwitters collages, but with a chilling and important difference: the casual acceptance of propaganda. It feels strange to think of these photographs as something someone held in their hands and glued down, almost like a scrapbook. It’s a useful reminder of the complexity of history.