Defilé van de Duitse Reichsarbeitsdienst Possibly 1940 - 1948

Editor: We’re looking at "Defilé van de Duitse Reichsarbeitsdienst," a photograph, likely a gelatin silver print, taken sometime between 1940 and 1948. It shows members of the Reich Labour Service marching, looking rather stern. The rigid composition and the sheer number of uniformed figures create a really unsettling feeling. What stands out to you? Curator: Unsettling is precisely the word, isn't it? The photograph itself seems to be marching towards us, this endless line blurring the individual. It’s a masterful, yet chilling, example of how photography can be used as a tool of propaganda – visually presenting a united front and enforced conformity. The landscape feels strangely absent. The figures are not people in a place but things occupying and transforming the space they cross, devoiding it of any other possibility. What does this relentless display evoke for you on a more personal level? Does the weight of history sit heavily in the viewing? Editor: It does. The black and white only amplifies that sense of something distant and bleak. I am thinking what each of these individuals would feel... Also, it’s strange to think this march happened, potentially, right outside this very building where we stand right now. Curator: Exactly! It ceases to be some distant historical event but it's framed as something deeply connected with our location. It pushes you, doesn't it, to consider photography not merely as a recording, but as a carefully constructed narrative – a lens, both literally and figuratively, through which we interpret history? I suppose, maybe art isn't really what you see but how it makes you feel when the experience of seeing settles? Editor: It makes me think about how easily images can be manipulated, and how important it is to be critical of what we see. Curator: Precisely. A chilling reminder, meticulously crafted. Editor: Food for thought. Thank you.