Aus der Jugendzeit 1928 - 1932

Curator: This is "Aus der Jugendzeit," a gelatin silver print, which translates to "From the Days of Youth," made sometime between 1928 and 1932. Editor: Oh, wow. Looking at this page, what strikes me is the compilation – it’s like a visual poem about a bygone era, heavy on nostalgia, maybe a touch melancholy. Curator: I find myself pondering how these specific youthful representations are curated in relation to each other, considering photography's role in shaping memories and identity within interwar Germany. We need to remember the period's anxieties around class, identity and masculinity, for example. Editor: Totally. See image two, the dude with the instrument—lute, maybe? So affected, romantic almost to the point of camp! It makes me wonder who decided to group these particular moments. Is it an idealized version of youth, sanitized and picturesque? Or does it hint at something deeper, a longing perhaps? Curator: These carefully staged images can become contested spaces where ideas around nationhood are either performed or resisted. The fourth picture, which shows the river so high that it spills into the nearby village, for example. Editor: That's a very intense image indeed, perhaps it means hard times. Though, you see how image number six mirrors number one with a crowd of youths standing shoulder to shoulder and grinning in a similar way... Curator: Yes! That mirroring can lead us to interrogate not only the collective identities being forged but also their potential exclusions. Who is represented? Who is absent? Editor: Exactly. It makes me think about personal narrative versus public image, and how both can be manipulated. The photos collectively hint at larger social narratives too. What does it mean to show yourself building tents, making music, standing near a flooded city, standing in the countrysides. It's heavy with suggestion, these carefully chosen shots. Curator: For me, reflecting on this brings to mind Walter Benjamin's idea of photography capturing not just a likeness but an aura. It beckons critical conversations. Editor: Mmm. Yes, conversations worth having. You know, looking at this page again, I think, maybe memory itself is a kind of performance too.