Een groep Britse soldaten staat te wachten op het treinstation van Pretoria Possibly 1900 - 1906

Editor: This gelatin silver print, likely from somewhere between 1900 and 1906, is titled "A group of British soldiers waiting at the train station of Pretoria." It's by an anonymous photographer, which somehow adds to the feeling of lost history. There's such a strange stillness, despite it being a picture of so many soldiers... it’s like a pause before a storm. What jumps out at you about this image? Curator: That stillness gets me too, doesn’t it? I see that and something else…a kind of placelessness, you know? It *could* be anywhere, those anonymous men waiting... There’s a weight to it, I feel, a heavy silence. They’re lined up almost like…like chess pieces, aren’t they? Consider the Anglo-Boer War context, what they’re waiting *for*. Maybe it's that weight, the unknown of their coming battles? What do you think that heavy silence is all about? Editor: It definitely makes me think about the uncertainty and the grim possibilities ahead for these soldiers. And the chess piece analogy is interesting. It removes a sense of individual humanity, making them into these representations of British power at that time, and hints at something so much bigger than them as people. Curator: Yes, puppets of an Empire, really! I imagine this photographer, nameless to us, recording the event, trying to capture… what? A moment of history, yes, but maybe also the weariness of war before it begins? It really resonates with the war photography from a century later! Funny how things change and don't change. Editor: It’s made me look at images of the past in a new light – considering who *isn’t* named or acknowledged and understanding their place in the larger picture. Thank you! Curator: You're welcome, such questions are what makes our role fun, huh? Keep questioning!