Portret van generaal veldmaarschalk Walther von Reichenau 1942

This portrait of General Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau is an undated photograph, made by an anonymous artist. I am drawn to the tonal range in this piece, it's a study in contrasts and textures. The photograph has this amazing quality where some areas are super sharp, almost hyper-real, while others fade into a soft blur, particularly around the edges, which for me, speaks to artmaking as a process of revealing and concealing. The starkness of the black and white palette, the rigid lines of the uniform, and the steely gaze of the subject all contribute to the emotional intensity. There's something unsettling about the blank stare and the way the light catches his monocle, it’s all a bit too perfect, a bit too controlled. I'm reminded of the work of Gerhard Richter, especially his blurred portraits. Both artists seem to be exploring the relationship between representation and reality, inviting us to question what we see and how we see it. Art, after all, isn’t about providing answers, but about opening up new ways of questioning.