Onbekende vrouw met kind, vermoedelijk na 1932, vermoedelijk in Duitsland 1932

This is a photographic album page, believed to be German and made sometime after 1932, with two prints stuck on. What strikes me is the intimacy. There's a sense of immediacy in the snapshots, a casualness that invites us in. The tonal range is limited, a palette of soft grays and creams. It's in these muted tones that we find the emotional heart of the piece. In the photo of the mother holding the baby, it's her smile that draws us in, full of a warm tenderness. It's interesting to consider the wider context of family photos. In a way, they are all anonymous, aren’t they? They invite speculation, and raise more questions than answers. Like the work of Gerhard Richter, the banality and formal simplicity has a haunting emotional quality.