Vijf matrozen in een park 1940 - 1943

Editor: So, here we have "Five Sailors in a Park," a gelatin silver print from around 1940-1943, currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. It strikes me as both incredibly ordinary and deeply poignant. I mean, it's just a snapshot, right? But, given the historical context, I can’t help but feel a kind of underlying melancholy. What do you read into it? Curator: It does hum with that bittersweetness, doesn't it? It feels suspended between youthful camaraderie and the heavy cloak of wartime uncertainty. I am drawn in by the realism, and I imagine each sailor with unique stories, captured in this stolen, mundane moment. What about the monochrome adds, do you think? Editor: Well, the black and white definitely adds to that sense of distance and formality, but it also throws into relief details of the park...but also makes the scene feels a bit bleak and lonely. But who made it and what was the impetus for such photograph during this period? Curator: That is hard to know since the Artist is recorded as anonymous. Considering the war period during which it was captured, maybe these Sailors wanted to portray what normalcy meant in the world turned upside down. Also, it is important to reflect the gaze of an anonymous person into the gaze of unknown young naval men. What a double reflection in such intense, poignant times. So much left unsaid, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: Absolutely. It’s like a quiet testament, a whisper from the past. It certainly leaves one to wonder about what became of these men after this photograph was taken, a reflection, to what they really wanted. Curator: An excellent perspective that gives rise to further investigation.