In de deur 1940 - 1943

Here’s a black and white photograph by an anonymous artist of uniformed men standing in a doorway. The thing about photographs, they're never truly objective, right? The photographer gets to choose the framing, the lighting, the moment. It’s like painting, in a way—a translation, an interpretation. I’m thinking about the photographer here—what were they trying to capture? A moment of camaraderie? An official portrait? And what’s outside the frame? What’s just out of sight, lurking in the shadows? I love the way the light falls on the men's faces, the way their dark uniforms contrast with the white doorway. It's a simple composition, but it has a certain weight to it, a certain gravity. The way the figures are arranged, with the main man ever so slightly in front. The image becomes a record, but also a quiet speculation of what the subjects might be thinking. It reminds me of Gerhard Richter's black and white paintings, where the blurriness becomes a way of suggesting memory, loss, the passage of time.