Jongens van de Jeugdstorm tijdens hun eedsaflegging Possibly 1934 - 1935

This photograph of the Jeugdstorm, the youth movement of the Dutch NSB party, captures a moment of oath-taking. The image itself, a black and white silver gelatin print, a standard technology of the time, speaks volumes. Photography, once a laborious and specialized craft, had become increasingly accessible, a tool for documentation and propaganda. Here, it freezes a staged event, likely carefully composed to project an image of unity and strength. The flag itself, a manufactured object of dyed fabric, represents a potent symbol, carefully designed and mass-produced. The uniforms of the boys, too, are revealing. Mass produced, they are signifiers of a political identity. Consider the labor involved in every stage of this image’s production: from the factory workers who made the photographic paper and the flag, to the photographer and the subjects themselves. What stories do they tell of labor, politics and consumption? Ultimately, this photograph invites us to consider how seemingly simple materials and processes can be used to construct and disseminate powerful ideologies.