Breda 1940 - 1943

This is a page from an anonymous photo album, its origins remain mysterious. Each print is a little portal, a captured moment. I'm drawn to the tactile quality of the prints, the way they’re arranged on the page. The album itself becomes a kind of collage. It is the juxtaposition of the images of everyday life - a street scene, children feeding a goose - alongside the photos of soldiers that makes this such a fascinating object. The prints vary in size, with different white borders and paper textures, so that the surface dances before our eyes. It suggests the act of collecting and arranging, of trying to make sense of fragments of a reality. The anonymous album maker reminds me of artists like Gerhard Richter, who also uses photography to explore themes of memory, history, and representation. Both invite us to reflect on the role of the artist as archivist, sifting through the visual material of the world and creating new meanings through the act of selection and presentation.