Klaslokaal met schoolbanken en landkaart van Duitsland 1892 - 1917

Editor: This gelatin silver print from between 1892 and 1917 by Willem Cornelis van Hoeke depicts a classroom with old school desks and a map of Germany. It’s amazing to see how classrooms have evolved. I’m particularly struck by the almost eerie emptiness. What draws your eye in this piece? Curator: That quiet is deafening, isn’t it? It makes me wonder about all the unheard voices and untold stories echoing in that very room. It reminds me a bit of those half-remembered dreams of schooldays. You almost feel like you’re intruding on a moment suspended in time. I love how the artist captured the almost architectural grandeur of the desks. And the map looming above? It speaks to ambition, geography, power…what do you think the artist wanted to convey? Editor: I hadn’t thought of the map that way! I just saw it as a classroom staple. But you’re right; it could also be a silent symbol of national identity, or even expansionist desires. So, do you think that these realist images can have other components as part of their themes? Curator: Absolutely! Reality, as any good dreamer knows, is just the starting point. That photograph does document a real classroom, but what's a photograph if not a meticulously arranged dream frozen in silver? Perhaps the light wasn’t this somber. What kind of narrative do you think such image can promote if its tone was different? Editor: A completely different one. It would be an active setting, as opposed to one frozen in time. Thank you. I really see the image from a different angle. Curator: My pleasure! I’m glad we got to unravel some of its layers together. Every artwork is, after all, an invitation to a new kind of seeing.