Luftwaffe militair 1941 - 1942

This photograph, "Luftwaffe militair," was made by an anonymous artist with a camera, but it could just as easily have been made with paint. Look at how the tonal range has been compressed into a tight register of greys. This reminds me of Richter's blurred photos, the way he scraped and pulled the image to make the materiality of paint visible. Here, the grain of the photographic paper and the faded image work together to create a sense of texture. There is such clarity in the crisp lines of the building behind the figure, yet the man himself, especially his face, seems lost in the atmosphere. The image looks as if it is dissolving before our eyes, fading into history. I love the way the shadow cast on the ground acts as a kind of dark mirror, a doppelganger that makes the figure feel even more insubstantial. It's like a memory, fleeting and unresolved.