Eugen Wachenheimer en zijn echtgenote Else Wachenheimer-Moos in een roeiboot tijdens vakantie, august 1932, Eibsee (Beieren) 1932 - 1938

Editor: So, here's a gelatin silver print from a family album, labelled "Eugen Wachenheimer en zijn echtgenote Else Wachenheimer-Moos in een roeiboot tijdens vakantie, august 1932, Eibsee (Beieren)." It's… a set of snapshots, really, each like a little vignette. There's a sort of nostalgic, slightly melancholic feeling. What stands out to you? Curator: Nostalgia is the perfect word, actually! It whispers stories of a specific place and time – Eibsee, August '32 – a world on the brink of profound change, as the war and what happened before still resonates to this day. And you see this almost naive calmness captured. This photograph, with its humble square format and monochrome tones, really, I think, invites us to become quiet observers ourselves. Don't you agree it creates such a sense? Editor: It does! So how does this 'genre painting' style that the metadata refers to factor into all of this? Is it really the appropriate thing to call it? Curator: Ah, the genre painting tag! In my view it refers less to high art conventions here and perhaps more towards capturing ordinary life - family on vacation. However, perhaps the composition – almost like a grid of posed moments— elevates these seemingly simple pictures into something quite intentional and revealing, you could say. Editor: Hmm, I see what you mean, it's both spontaneous and deliberate. Thank you, I learned a lot! Curator: Me too. The everyday contains worlds within worlds, always.