Duitse militairen 1940 - 1945

This is a page of black and white photographs from an album in the Rijksmuseum, made by an anonymous photographer. Snapshots—someone holding the camera, framing the image, clicking, and then bam, here it is, a little piece of time. I wonder who took the photos and if they knew at the time these images would end up here? What were they thinking? Did they have any idea of the resonance these images would hold? I’m always curious about how the photographer and the subjects in the picture might be connected, the personal stories that are held within. It’s easy to imagine the images speak of shared experiences, but like abstract paintings, the meaning isn’t so fixed, there’s plenty of room for our own experiences to come into play. They allow us to meditate on our own relationship to the past. Photography is a powerful medium that helps us look at our own history and how we might connect to it.