Voetbal 1941 - 1945

Artist: Well, look at this page from an old photo album! The Rijksmuseum tells us it's titled "Voetbal," which charmingly translates to "Football," created anonymously sometime between 1941 and 1945. What strikes you about it? Curator: Initially, the stark black and white and the rigid compositions give it a sense of constraint. Four photographs documenting, perhaps, the ritualized performance of sport. There is a group of young men arranged almost like military formations. I would wonder what context surrounds images of young athletes during World War II? Artist: Yes! There’s this mix of youthful energy and something…strained. You're right, that top left image of the team resting on the grass, it's relaxed, almost joyful. Then the others feel quite different. But that old-school, silvery quality of the gelatin silver prints – makes everything feel historical. Makes you wonder who snapped these moments and why they held onto them. It’s more than just boys at play, isn't it? Curator: It couldn't be just that. During those years, everything, including leisure, was imbued with political meaning. These are curated images. The ordering of the subjects, their postures…these all speak to an underlying need to exert some kind of authority or to manufacture nationalistic sentiments, through seemingly innocent group activities. Are we looking at images designed as propaganda, or something else? Artist: Propaganda… it’s an unsettling idea when looking at photographs of youth like this, their lives likely consumed by such tumultuous times. Perhaps football provided a sanctuary – even fleeting. Still, even the composition evokes ideas of alignment, control... the men mirroring each other across each frame. Curator: Exactly. And in analyzing historical imageries we cannot overlook visual vocabularies and what purposes are being served. I think what we’re looking at here are codes, visually reinforcing what the collective should value. I bet even the camera angle was purposefully chosen. Artist: This small set of photographs becomes like a time capsule filled with echoes and ambiguities. There is undeniable grace to the images. Perhaps they captured brief moments of light amid pervasive darkness? Curator: Ultimately, these fragments from a photo album pose unsettling questions about youth, sports, national identity, and how these photographs both reflect and reinforce societal norms, specifically, how codes operate and move. I keep looking at this and wondering what happened to the men shown.