Album Deutsche Reichsbahn, 1943-1944 1943 - 1944

Curator: This is an album from the Deutsche Reichsbahn, dating from 1943-1944. The piece combines mixed media and photography, featuring albumen prints in its construction. Editor: It's deceptively simple at first glance, almost minimalist. But that blank, tan surface, the texture of the fabric binding – it speaks volumes, doesn’t it? There's a strange stillness here. Curator: Precisely. Considering its creation during that period, it's impossible to divorce the Reichsbahn—the German Imperial Railway—from its role in the Holocaust and Nazi logistics. Editor: So, even this object, a seemingly banal album, is implicated. The material of the binding becomes crucial – likely a standardized cloth produced en masse, representative of the war machine’s vast procurement needs. Curator: Exactly. Think about what this album contained—probably photographs meticulously documenting infrastructure, personnel, or even specific journeys. The “still life” aspect gains chilling undertones when contextualized against the backdrop of forced deportations and systemic oppression. It transforms this object into a repository, not just of images, but of institutionalized evil. Editor: It almost seems as though the album itself attempts to repress this history through its plain appearance. And albumen prints, though possessing a certain nostalgic beauty, were a widespread industrial means of reproduction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – they symbolize a certain degree of bureaucratic detachment. Curator: This really invites critical reflection on photography as a tool of power, control, and record-keeping during that era. Editor: Absolutely. Even its preservation invites discourse. By studying the album as object, we engage with the social and material networks of the time, bringing labor and the banality of evil into the same line of sight. Curator: Looking at its sheer banality offers insight into the processes through which individuals become part of these massive state-driven systems of dehumanization. Editor: This is exactly what makes this album so jarring; on one hand its face is so muted while still evoking feelings tied into a historical reading of power and oppression through this minimalist piece of photography.