Matrozen 1941 - 1945

This page from an anonymous photo album presents three small, grainy images of a figure or figures in simple outdoor settings. The images are small and slightly blurred, but the way they're arranged on the page feels considered. It makes me think about how a painter uses the canvas, considering the overall composition, the relationship between figures, and the negative space. Each photograph is its own little vignette, a moment captured in time and pasted down on the page. The tones are soft and hazy, like faded memories. You can almost smell the musty scent of an old book when you see an image like this. I'm reminded of the way Gerhard Richter uses photography as source material, transforming the everyday into something more abstract and enigmatic. In this context, the materiality of the photograph—the paper, the emulsion, the way it's aged over time—becomes part of the story. The album page is a conversation, between images, between past and present, inviting us to reflect on the passage of time and the stories we tell ourselves about the past.