Op wacht; weekblad voor den wederopbouw van het Koninkrijk Possibly 1946

This is a copy of "Op wacht; weekblad voor den wederopbouw van het Koninkrijk" printed by Ten Hagen's in 1949, a broadsheet printed with a relatively spare design. What strikes me is the stark contrast between the severity of the text and the more softly rendered images. The texture of the old paper gives a tangible sense of history, and the way the ink bleeds slightly into the page suggests the urgency of the message being conveyed. Look at how the lines of text march across the page, each word a step forward. The layout is dense, but each article is distinct. The halftone images break up the text, offering a moment of reflection. The adds offer a counterpoint to the news. I'm reminded of the newspapers in Kurt Schwitters' collages, these scraps of printed material, mirroring the fragmentation of experience in the modern world. Just as Schwitters found poetry in trash, this newspaper transforms mundane information into something enduring.