Jeugdstorm tijdens een kringspel Possibly 1934 - 1935

This photograph, "Jeugdstorm tijdens een kringspel," was taken by the NSB, a Dutch political party aligned with Nazi Germany, sometime in the early 20th century. It's a scene dominated by monochrome, shades of grey defining shapes and forms. What grabs me is its blurriness, as if the image itself is trying to forget what it depicts. The focus is a group of children, probably members of the Jeugdstorm, sitting in a circle, their faces and expressions obscured, while adults stand nearby. The texture of the photo is grainy, the details lost in translation, a kind of historical static. You can sense the stillness of the moment, but the vagueness, this sort of enforced secrecy, raises so many questions. What stories are concealed behind these indistinct faces? Thinking about this piece, I'm reminded of Gerhard Richter’s blurred photographs. Richter also grapples with memory and history, using similar techniques of obscuration to explore the elusiveness of truth. Like Richter's work, this photograph embraces ambiguity, inviting us to consider the complexities of the past.