Soldatenleven tijdens de opleiding 1935 - 1940

Curator: Right, let's turn our attention to this gelatin silver print. It's titled "Soldatenleven tijdens de opleiding," or "Soldier's Life During Training," created sometime between 1935 and 1940. The artist is currently listed as Anonymous and the work resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It looks like a series of candid snapshots, doesn't it? Not quite posed, almost like… surveillance. The raw quality is striking. Curator: Interesting choice of words, given the period. It presents a look into military life in a pre-war setting, possibly offering glimpses of everyday life within barracks or training grounds. It may be innocuous or…propaganda depending on the creator's intention and how such images were distributed. Editor: Propaganda through banality, maybe. The repetition of forms, uniforms, buildings… that relentless blockiness speaks volumes about institutionalized existence. I’m curious about the conditions of its production—what kind of cameras would have been used? Was this intended as a private album, or public dissemination? Curator: Those are relevant questions. Photography at this time straddled the line between personal and state use. While a personal camera may have been used, the display is more formal than a scrap-book album, suggesting perhaps intended, wider dissemination through government magazines. Editor: Either way, there is this visual economy being highlighted by the choice of black and white which also plays into ideas around the military and regimentation. It almost becomes a study on labor. What do they do when they are not posing as soldiers? They are still "doing". Curator: It gives an intimate glimpse that many traditional paintings may not have been able to do. While art history is more willing to display photograph works, what this also does is display war through photography. This shifts the view of what war and army life "is." Editor: A war seen from a material perspective, almost, from the vantage point of mundane tasks and simple gestures. Something you wouldn’t otherwise get from glorified paintings of battlefield victories. Curator: Yes, I agree. Considering its creation right before World War II, this provides us a fascinating and complicated picture of military preparation and the shaping of the national imagination. Editor: Definitely provides much to think about, considering the context in which it was made. A very sober work indeed.