Karl-Heinz Arndtheim, de tweede echtgenoot van Isabel Wachenheimer, in militair uniform zonder militair hoofddeksel op het hoofd, 1944-1955 1944 - 1955

This photograph of Karl-Heinz Arndtheim in military uniform, was created anonymously sometime between 1944 and 1955. Look at the way this image hovers between intimacy and formality, like a snapshot trying to be a portrait. The monochrome palette, like an old film, gives it a sense of distance, but there's an openness in his eyes that pulls you in. See the texture of the paper, that slightly rough, almost handmade quality? It reminds me of a drawing, where the artist is present in every mark. And that slightly off-center composition? It's like the photographer was searching, feeling their way through the image. That little cluster of medals on his chest feels so weighted, so full of stories. I think of August Sander, how he used photography to make a kind of social inventory, a typology of German society. This image is a fragment of that same impulse, a quiet, unassuming witness to history.