Leerlingen van Schule Schloss Salem staan in het gelid bij een groepsdiscipline-oefening c. 1929

This photograph shows a group of boys standing in formation, and the limited palette of sepia tones feels so right for the subject. I mean, it could’ve been shot at any time, but the fact that it’s a historical document lends it a certain authority, a kind of cold precision. I'm drawn to the surface texture, the way the light catches the grain of the photographic paper, almost like an etching. And those soft, muted tones evoke a sense of distance. It's as if the image is trying to tell us something about the past, but it's obscured by time. Look at the way the boys are lined up so uniformly, almost robotic, and then, over to the right, there's another figure, maybe a teacher, standing slightly apart, observing. The whole thing feels staged, performative, yet strangely intimate. This image reminds me a little of the photographs of August Sander, who also aimed for objectivity, but ended up revealing so much more about the people in his portraits. It’s a good reminder that art is an ongoing conversation. We make marks, and those marks make meaning, even when we don't fully understand what we're saying.