Foto behorend bij album Kriegserinnerungen 1940 - 1945

Curator: This gelatin-silver print, titled "Foto behorend bij album Kriegserinnerungen," meaning "Photo belonging to war memories album," dates from 1940-1945. It's an anonymous work housed here at the Rijksmuseum. What strikes you about it? Editor: The high contrast of the striped uniforms set against the neutral tones of the background is quite visually arresting. There's something both rigid and almost whimsical about the lines, like a strange play on conformity and order. Curator: Indeed. Consider the power dynamics at play. The stripes, almost prison-like, hint at institutional control and the loss of individuality during wartime, yet there's a camaraderie suggested by the two figures. How might the personal relationships among military personnel serve to soften these austere surroundings and societal constraints? Editor: Formally speaking, the photographer has created an interesting tension between the horizontal stripes and the verticality of the building behind them. It creates a visual field that is at once ordered and somewhat disorienting. Curator: Precisely. It reflects the psychological dissonance inherent in war. Note too, that these stripes serve as a symbolic reduction to their status as working-class individuals with their specific nautical professions—while underscoring the social order within the military. This work makes me consider the role of working-class sailors in maintaining a system from which they are systemically estranged. Editor: The composition is fairly straightforward, a simple portrait. And yet, the symmetry is undermined by the subjects' individual gestures. One holds what appears to be a pipe, while the other stands passively. These small, humanizing details add another layer. Curator: And this, too, reveals tension. How the small human rituals and bonds offer a way for service members to retain humanity amidst the grand machinery of war. This piece helps us see how individual acts both reinforced the system, and provided a sense of humanity under immense external pressure. Editor: It certainly gives one much to consider. There are interesting textural considerations for those intrigued by visual semiotics. Curator: Absolutely. It offers a potent visual statement about war, not through action, but through the subtle encoding of power and humanity in the everyday.