Groep Duitse militairen waarvan één op een accordeon speelt 1940 - 1944

This is a set of black and white photographs of a group of German soldiers, one playing an accordion, probably from the mid-20th century. They’re pasted onto a page in a photo album. What strikes me is the contrast between the formality of the album format and the casualness of the images. The soldiers are just hanging out, not posed stiffly as you might expect. They’re caught in a moment of downtime. The gray scale has a flattening effect, turning the figures into shapes, like elements of a composition. Look how the artist, the one who arranged the album, has placed them. The photos are arranged to form a pattern, and the rough edges of the photo paper almost look like brushstrokes. It reminds me that even in the most documentary forms, there’s an element of construction, of seeing and shaping. You know, like Gerhard Richter's use of photographs as source material. Ultimately, it makes you wonder, what story are these images really telling?