Groepsportret van militairen 1941 - 1945

This is a photograph, by an anonymous artist, whose title translates as a group portrait of military personnel. What can we glean about an artist through the process of making a picture? Here, the artist uses monochrome – the image is composed of varying shades of black and grey. You can see that the soldiers are arranged in a formal group, some standing, some kneeling, and are placed outdoors in front of an institutional-looking building. The artist no doubt carefully constructed this setting, creating the scene and arranging the subjects to convey a sense of order and authority. I wonder what it was like to be the photographer? What was going through their mind when they captured it? They would have been thinking about light and shadow, trying to capture the essence and shared identity of the group before them. Photography and painting have always had a dialogue, often inspiring one another’s creativity. Though this image is documentary, the hand of the photographer is there, showing how forms of picture-making offer ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world.