Untitled (portrait of young man saluting) c. 1940

Editor: This untitled image, by John Deusing, features a young man in uniform saluting. The high contrast really emphasizes the formality of the pose; what can you tell me about the context of this image? Curator: The uniform suggests a specific social role, and the act of saluting implies hierarchy and duty. I wonder if the photographer, Deusing, was commenting on the militarization of youth, or perhaps participating in patriotic fervor. Consider the absence of a date: does this make the image timeless, or is it symptomatic of a lost history? Editor: So, it is the ambiguity and its place in cultural history that you find most interesting. Curator: Precisely. It prompts us to question the relationship between individual identity, political power, and photographic representation, even today.