Leo Blumensohn met vijf onbekende mannen, staand op een balkon dat uitkijkt over een bebouwde stadsomgeving met electriciteitsmast op de achtergrond 1947 - 1949

Curator: Ah, this gelatin silver print is fascinating. The work, captured sometime between 1947 and 1949, presents Leo Blumensohn with five unknown men standing on a balcony, overlooking what looks like a cityscape. Editor: It's quite stiff, isn't it? I feel an echo of post-war seriousness—all these fellas looking like they’ve got the weight of the world on their shoulders, against that backdrop. Very gray. Very…urban. Curator: Indeed. Formally, it’s the geometric rigor that captivates me—the clean lines of the balcony contrasting with the chaos of the developing cityscape. And consider how the placement of the men interrupts, yet completes the horizontality of that balcony line. There's tension. Editor: I get tension alright, but to me this just feels like Sunday suits forced into a landscape. Like they'd rather be inside, drinking tea and arguing about politics. That electric grid looming in the background adds to that slightly ominous feel, doesn't it? Kind of a watchful presence. Curator: Perhaps that's the cityscape working its magic, becoming a silent witness. Notice also how the artist, or perhaps it was an amateur, captured it—flattening the urban depth, creating this almost theatrical backdrop. It could speak of confinement. Editor: Confinement, or just progress, depending on how you're feeling that day, right? All those buildings climbing towards the sky, those electric cables promising connection and power... But that group portrait itself has such character! I imagine these guys had stories to tell. Though it is a pity it remains by an anonymous photographer! Curator: It's those open narratives that beckon. An anonymous snapshot holds layers; both formal decisions made in composition but a story, so close, of intimacy or shared fate that now exists only as this object. Editor: It feels like a secret whispered across time. You see a carefully constructed scene; I sense the slightly awkward human connection that comes only through forced circumstance and memory. Both in the pose and composition, what an intriguing capture.