Isabel's grootouders Meir Wachenheimer en zijn echtgenote Mathilde Wachenheimer-Wertheimer in de woning van de familie Wachenheimer c. 1932 - 1937

Curator: Here we have a photograph from the Wachenheimer family album. It's a gelatin silver print, dating from around 1932 to 1937, titled "Isabel's grandparents Meir Wachenheimer and his wife Mathilde Wachenheimer-Wertheimer in the Wachenheimer family home." What's your initial impression? Editor: There's something incredibly tender about it, even in the monochrome. They're holding hands, and his eyes... they hold so much history, a kind of quiet strength and devotion. Curator: Gelatin silver prints were the standard for photography during this period. The process allowed for relatively high image quality and ease of reproduction. It was the workhorse of photographic documentation for decades, connecting amateur and artistic practice to standardized commercial processes. Consider the social function of this image. Editor: It feels posed but genuine. The home in the backdrop isn't luxurious, but it evokes the familiar domesticity of old family portraits. Perhaps it signals middle class respectability through a studied form of presentation? There is an unmistakable elegance about Mathilde's lace, a striking example of historical fashion! Curator: The very act of commissioning such a portrait underscores the family’s aspirations and social position. And to me it hints at consumer access to visual media technologies that further spread social values. It becomes less about private sentimental moments than participation in image production. Editor: But holding hands is such an elemental symbol! Even within a rigid social structure and photograph conventions. Despite that structure I am overcome by emotion when contemplating them looking forward, hoping perhaps... Curator: The question of how such photographic practices were taken up is more relevant. To me at least! By viewing this gelatin-silver print through the lens of production, reproduction, distribution we begin to truly grasp how the art operates within systems. Editor: You are incorrigibly rational! Even the production bears witness to the love between them. I simply like looking at old photos and imagine my place in this great march! Thank you for that, materialist that you are. Curator: And you’ve reminded me that art always embodies a certain mystery in the everyday, Artist! We come full circle!