Echtpaar Berti Hoppe en Herman Besselaar tijdens een wandeling, Berti in huis en hun hond Black 1938

Curator: This is a page from a 1938 photo album titled, "Echtpaar Berti Hoppe en Herman Besselaar tijdens een wandeling, Berti in huis en hun hond Black"—or, "Couple Berti Hoppe and Herman Besselaar on a walk, Berti indoors, and their dog Black." Editor: Immediately striking is the tripartite structure, those neatly bordered monochrome prints, each a miniature tableau. There's a narrative unfolding through the sequencing itself, wouldn’t you say? Curator: Certainly. Note the subtle interplay between the photographs—the subjects are deliberately framed and spaced. There is a very strong interplay between light and dark that draws the eye in and leads us in a very specific direction. The photographer uses strong contrasts which imbue it with a unique, yet cohesive feel. Editor: Yes, the chiaroscuro enhances the intimate nature of the images, drawing upon themes of domesticity and nature to highlight the Besselaars’ life together. Look closely, and we can even detect how the depiction of Berti indoors amongst all those books hints at the couple’s intellectual life. Curator: Good point. One might add that the repeated squares bring about an underlying uniformity which ties everything together neatly and further accentuates this unity you described so well! Editor: Precisely. I feel as if these are not just photographs. Each separate photograph feels akin to a still in some long forgotten film of cultural history and everydayness. One thinks of Atget, even though he pre-dates this moment, that need to chronicle the modern. Curator: Indeed, that is so true. Each photograph seems so ordinary, and yet in sequence they gain much depth. Editor: Looking closely at the structural elegance of the composition, as well as considering how this photograph provides a time capsule of its subjects' life—both speak to the value and magic we associate with photographs. Curator: Concurred. It feels like the photographer captured more than the image reflects and intended; a complex series of thoughts.