Isabel Wachenheimer met haar moeder Else Wachenheimer-Moos, het kindermeisje en drie onbekende vrouwen in de tuin en in de haven, augustus 1933, Hamburg 1933 - 1938

This album page featuring three photographs was made in Hamburg, in August 1933, by the Wachenheimer family. I can imagine the family carefully arranging themselves in the garden, or down at the harbour, perhaps smiling nervously for the camera. It must have been strange for them, knowing they would be recording these moments for posterity but not knowing what the future would hold. The act of taking photos can be a kind of time travel, and it is poignant to look back at this family not knowing that some of them would perish in concentration camps less than ten years later. Photography is similar to painting, in that it is a way of freezing a moment in time, imbuing an everyday scene with heightened emotion and personal meaning. Like looking at the work of other artists, as well as our own, we can participate in an ongoing exchange of ideas across time. Making visible the hidden layers of shared experience, the past is not just a fixed entity, but a mirror for understanding our present, and imagining future possibilities.