Kriegsmarine in De Haan 1942

This page from a photo album, Kriegsmarine in De Haan, shows snapshots of German naval officers in Belgium. The gray paper of the album page acts like a canvas. The photos are carefully arranged like collage elements, each with its own border and visual weight. The handwriting adds another layer, looping and connecting, blurring the line between image and text. I'm drawn to the handwritten text "De Haan bei Ostende." The casual, almost playful script contrasts sharply with the formality of the portraits and the implied weight of the war. The photos are small and self-contained, but the handwriting sprawls across the page, anchoring them to a place and time. It reminds me of Cy Twombly’s painterly scrawls, where the act of writing becomes a kind of drawing, an expression of the artist's hand and mind in motion. Artmaking, like life, is about embracing the unexpected and finding beauty in the imperfect. This album page, with its mix of images and handwritten text, captures that spirit perfectly. It's not just a collection of photographs; it's a moment in time, preserved and presented with a personal touch.