Leden van een vliegtuigbemanning lopend over een landingsbaan, voor een KLM-toestel The Flying Dutchman 1951 - 1958

Curator: This gelatin silver print, dating from somewhere between 1951 and 1958, captures members of a flight crew walking in front of a KLM aircraft, "The Flying Dutchman". The image is an archival photograph by an anonymous artist. What's your initial reaction to it? Editor: A sense of determined motion, even though it's a still image. There's something about the way they're striding forward that conveys purpose, ambition maybe even the symbolism of aviation, progress, connecting distant lands. The Flying Dutchman of dreams and fairytales? Curator: Indeed, KLM leveraged that folklore imagery quite deliberately. During this period, the airline represented Dutch national identity on the world stage, a projection of competence and modernity in the postwar era. Aviation, once exclusive, was becoming more accessible. Editor: So the airline's appropriation of 'The Flying Dutchman', a symbol fraught with the anguish of perpetual wandering, represents a clever branding pivot for Dutch culture; from a ghostly figure doomed to roam the seas for eternity to a friendly international traveler? And their clothing too - does their walking in uniform present a symbolic sense of uniformity, as though representing a united Holland on a global scale? Curator: Yes, the uniforms are central here; they present an image of professionalism. Note, too, how their positioning mirrors the power structure—the captain, the pilot, and then what seems to be maybe the security personal, they march from left to right signifying progression through a team unit and rank and maybe control, this all contributed to public confidence in air travel at the time. But behind them we also see the catering being delivered for example - supporting roles so to speak, to this whole vision of progress and movement, not necessarily as obviously representative. Editor: Absolutely, this shot reveals how visual signifiers function in society. What are our individual roles within a bigger global structure? Curator: I find it interesting to consider the effect on people, as the background supporting the 'ideal dreamers' who are able to engage with flight more directly. Editor: Looking closely, I appreciate the soft greyscale tones; how photography at that time lends itself perfectly to the themes you touched upon earlier: progress and control, almost cold, almost clinical in its ability to create the feeling of being transported. And I note, too, the photographer hasn't staged these men in-flight but as 'arrivals', hinting at future opportunities; something is completed but now awaits, there's a real power in stillness too, then. Curator: Well, seeing this photo through your lens highlights, for me, the persuasive function inherent in aviation’s visual culture and national symbolism from that moment in time.