Portretten van Duitse militairen, 1940 1940

These portraits of German soldiers were made in 1940 by an anonymous artist using gelatin silver print. It’s a set of four images presented together, giving you a sense of seriality and maybe a bit of the uncanny. These are fairly straightforward photographs, but that doesn’t make them neutral. I'm immediately drawn to the texture; the almost granular feel of the silver, the way it creates these subtle gradations. You can tell they are produced with care and attention, but also with a certain mundanity in the composition. I’m interested in the play of light and shadow, the way the light falls on their faces and uniforms, highlighting certain features. It’s hard to know exactly why these portraits were made, or who made them. But they remind me a little of the work of August Sander, who also made portraits of people from different social classes in Germany. Ultimately, these photographs remain ambiguous and open to interpretation. It’s this openness that makes them so compelling.