Interieur 1940 - 1942

Curator: Here we have Foto Brusse's "Interieur," created between 1940 and 1942, a series of gelatin-silver prints mounted in what appears to be an album. Editor: My first impression is one of staged elegance tinged with isolation. The black and white photography and the interior shots of formal spaces create a rather cold atmosphere. Curator: Indeed. Brusse was active in Rotterdam before and during World War II, and these images present a specific view of bourgeois life. Consider how the Second World War, from 1940 to 1945, shaped daily life and thus photographic practices. Editor: I'm immediately drawn to the materiality. Gelatin-silver prints allow for a wide tonal range, lending the images a stark realism. And I'm wondering, given the historical context, whether the production of these images was affected by wartime shortages. Curator: An excellent point. Resources would have been scarce. The photographs give us glimpses into spaces usually associated with wealth and privilege, yet the compositions feel detached, almost documentary. Editor: Note the repetitive forms—the columns, the neatly arranged tables. I see an emphasis on the spaces themselves, almost as containers, which feels less about celebrating wealth and more about inventorying possessions. The materiality is almost bureaucratic in its detachment. Curator: It is worth remembering that after the war, Brusse shifted to more commercial work. It’s as though these pre-war images capture a world on the cusp of disappearing, a final record of a specific social class. Editor: Yes, there's something elegiac about these images. We have what's left after something's already gone away. It almost suggests there's a longing for something no longer there in both composition and use of light. Curator: Ultimately, “Interieur” prompts us to contemplate how social status, material culture, and historical events are captured, represented, and remembered through photography. Editor: For me, these prints offer a tactile, melancholic glimpse into a world constructed from materials teetering on the edge of upheaval. An unsettling, elegant memorial, almost.