Militair kamp, korvee en voetbalwedstrijd 1935 - 1938

Editor: So, here we have “Military Camp, Chores and Football Match,” a series of gelatin silver prints likely from between 1935 and 1938 by an anonymous artist. I find the snapshot aesthetic gives it a strangely intimate feel, despite the obviously formal, structured context. What strikes you when you look at it? Curator: What catches my eye is the contrast, or perhaps the intended harmony, between regimented activity and leisure. It reminds me of trying to find personal space within imposed structures; how does one build individual memories in what looks like such a homogenised setting? Editor: Exactly! The football game really punctuates the regiment with a blazon of freedom. And so I suppose, what does football symbolise here, and where do chores enter into this equation? Curator: Well, the football, I imagine, is a sanctioned form of release, controlled spontaneity. Think of chores - and more specifically, the positioning of those images, almost cornerstones - as an integral ingredient, because you cannot truly savor your leisure if you have not in some capacity 'earned' it. Do you think there is a tension at play here or more of a subtle synergy? Editor: I think the synergy feels more believable, at least with the addition of the group-portraits in the upper echelons; as a group perhaps, all can be forgotten for fleeting instances, especially through something universally bonding like a good game. I am wondering what future a photographer would anticipate, to bother committing these things to memory… Curator: Maybe, and this is just spitballing here, they hoped for a future of camaraderie amidst discipline. Or perhaps, more darkly, they sensed an impending storm, hoping to capture a last vestige of normal life before the descent into the Second World War? I am just thankful that the photographs survived, so we can weave our own readings into them. Editor: Definitely; thinking of this makes this little gelatin print even more potent in the way of forgotten time!