Militair van de Kriegsmarine op kantoor 1940 - 1943

Editor: So this gelatin-silver print, titled “Militair van de Kriegsmarine op kantoor,” made sometime between 1940 and 1943 by an anonymous artist, depicts a Kriegsmarine officer at his desk. It strikes me as oddly… mundane. Given the historical context, the image feels strangely detached from the war. What symbols or ideas jump out at you? Curator: It is mundane, isn’t it? Precisely because it shows us the banality of evil, Hannah Arendt's chilling concept. Look at the objects: the typewriter, the telephones... instruments of bureaucracy, communication. These tools, seemingly neutral, are what allowed the Kriegsmarine to function. What kind of stories might those phones be communicating? Orders? Reports? Editor: So, even seemingly innocuous objects become symbols loaded with meaning? Curator: Precisely. This isn't a portrait of heroism, it’s an image of compliance. It's the uniform, the setting that create a specific iconography. The crisp white of his jacket can evoke cleanliness, but it is clinical. Notice anything else? Editor: Now that you mention it, he looks a little bit like he's in a lab coat, like he is conducting experiments... Curator: A powerful association, unintentional but evocative, as bureaucratic violence is the removal of people from a direct awareness of consequences, and the substitution of symbols and systems to that awareness. What does the 'anonymous' authorship contribute, do you think? Editor: The lack of an author makes it even more universal. It could be anyone. It strips the subject of any individual accountability, instead pointing towards a collective culpability. Curator: Indeed. A chilling, potent image of how ordinary people can become cogs in terrible machinery. Editor: I never would have considered all of those layers. Thanks for pointing out how symbols can hide in plain sight, totally changing the meaning of something. Curator: And thank you for noticing! Every image carries its symbolic load through history.