Militair in zwembroek en laarzen Possibly 1940 - 1946

Curator: Here we have an intriguing photograph titled "Militair in zwembroek en laarzen," or "Military Man in Swim Trunks and Boots," thought to be from the period of 1940-1946, and its authorship is unfortunately listed as Anonymous. It is a gelatin silver print held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It’s striking! The black and white lends it a stark, almost surreal quality. There’s a strong contrast between the man’s casual attire—swim trunks—and the heavy, protective boots he’s wearing in this landscape. A tension, maybe. Curator: Exactly. I find it compelling how the materials play with expectations. Gelatin silver prints allowed for sharp details, which heighten the bizarre contrast here. We have this near-nude figure in the process of maybe gathering something, in a natural setting; yet his foot covering implies conflict, the field, the factory—or hard labour somewhere…it implies preparedness for movement. The making of this image invites us to consider what labor looks like after war, who performs it, how uniforms are adapted for circumstances, the materials on the bare body: what we might term masculine vulnerability versus his leather covering of what’s most important: mobility. Editor: The symbol of the boot, here, really jars. Traditionally, it speaks of authority, power, and conquest. Juxtaposed with the bare chest and bathing suit, and the gesture of what could be planting, almost undermines that conventional imagery. Are we meant to think about a deconstruction of power, then? Or perhaps power taking on a new… more ecological… form? Curator: Or consider what work that authority actually is. What do his hands do versus what his feet and boots permit? I also can’t help thinking of a broken returning soldier finding a useful new material context… boots turned to ploughshares somehow… The dark tones throughout, amplified by the gelatin silver print, suggest that there’s labor and mourning occurring… Editor: Interesting, there’s that strange ambiguity again: he's grounded yet exposed, actively touching something natural… and even that the artist and the work’s date is unattributed, gives the image added significance—its power is shared and mysterious. Curator: Indeed. Ultimately, the power of this photo might reside in that potent but precarious balance, a man trying to engage with a world perhaps both altered and brutalized by warfare—its future being pulled between an ecological need to reclaim its past, while also acknowledging it as lost. Editor: A sobering yet, somehow hopeful, reflection on an unsettled time.