Duitse militairen 1940 - 1945

Curator: This gelatin-silver print, titled "Duitse militairen," which translates to "German Soldiers," dates from 1940 to 1945. It resides here at the Rijksmuseum. What strikes you first about it? Editor: The overall somber tone. It's muted, of course, being black and white, but the way the light falls creates a feeling of confinement and perhaps boredom or unease. The fragmentation into two scenes pasted onto the album page also hints at separation or distance. Curator: Indeed. The two group portraits are evocative. Consider the historical context—soldiers during wartime, their daily lives a mixture of duty and downtime. Photography during this period took on an increasingly important role in shaping public perception and recording history, although, this feels far more intimate than a staged propaganda image. Editor: Absolutely. It almost has the intimacy of a family snapshot despite the uniforms. Even something mundane like the board game feels heavy. Games can serve as symbols of larger conflicts, microcosm of power dynamics. The way they’re grouped also pulls at the eye: Three in one photo looking down at a board and a different group in the other, maybe playing cards. Are the games representative, even symbolically? Curator: It’s certainly a thought-provoking detail. One aspect of the photograph's role I find fascinating is the use of portraiture during wartime. How it serves both as a form of record and of memorial. There’s a very human quality in their down time which has weight. Editor: The photograph strips away the mythologized image of soldiers and reveals these men in an extremely casual environment. In the one portrait, a glass bottle sitting on the table gives off a relaxed energy which has now evolved with meaning of oppression. These everyday objects start to stand out to me. Curator: So true. It is compelling to examine this image through different lenses: personal, social, political, where it exists in private versus its potential as public material. Editor: Reflecting on this photo, I’m stuck with its complex humanity; images offer potent ways to understand historical narratives, far beyond just recording facts. Curator: Yes, photography's strength is its capability of making a single instant reverberate long after. It certainly captures a crucial point of discourse during conflict.