Blad 156 uit Stamboek van de leerlingen der Koloniale School voor Meisjes en Vrouwen te 's-Gravenhage deel II (1930-1949) c. 1949

Curator: Immediately, I'm drawn to the somber tone. The contrast between the crisp photograph and the aged paper creates this haunting feeling, almost like glimpsing into someone's hidden history. Editor: This is leaf 156 from the "Registry of Students of the Colonial School for Girls and Women in The Hague, Part II (1930-1949)". The work, dating from around 1949, uses photography and albumen print. What we see is basically an open ledger featuring handwritten text next to a monochrome wedding photograph carefully attached to the paper. Curator: Right, it’s the human element placed within this very structured document that really fascinates me. Think about the journeys each of these women undertook... their stories distilled into a few lines of script. The couple immortalized in their joyful prime juxtaposed with faded archival details—name, location, circumstances. Editor: I agree. Consider the stark formality. The portrait itself, while intimate, is tightly cropped, its placement rigid within the page’s architecture. Each element — text, photograph, negative space—serves to build this complete, if austere, composition. The book’s spread imposes a narrative order—one defined by school records meeting life's significant events. Curator: What's striking is that while the text and format are rigid, the choice to include personal images lets the women have a presence. This official archive suddenly glows with humanity; love and connection shines right through, refusing to be filed away and forgotten. I feel there's this wonderful tension between control and chaos, you know? Editor: Definitely, and by doing this, they leave an impact, they also become data, each a unit, that the eye can compare based on graphic details and that generate, in turn, other ideas of interpretation. And this data is alive in some sense and that offers several and subtle layers. Curator: Looking again, this really does bridge the gap between document and art. Each leaf speaks volumes beyond the basic biographical details! Editor: It invites the audience to speculate about lives documented within; who were those girls and women? This simple spread becomes strangely poignant.