Terugreis 1950

Editor: So, this is "Terugreis," or "Return Journey," from 1950, a gelatin-silver print by an anonymous artist. It's actually a collection of photographs in a scrapbook. I'm struck by the sort of documentary feel of it all. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Well, placed in its historical context, a work like this asks us to consider what "return" meant in 1950. Who was returning, from where, and to what? The starkness of the gelatin-silver process gives a kind of directness to the images. Editor: I see… Was this maybe right after the Second World War? Perhaps the imagery shows people coming back home from conflict and displacement. Curator: Precisely. Notice how modes of transportation—sailboats, steamships—are featured so prominently. Think about what each type of transport might have represented to people in that era, and who had access to what means of getting home. How would it impact their experience of “returning?” Editor: I never really considered those economic or social dimensions within something as seemingly personal as photographs in a scrapbook! I initially was focused more on my personal feelings about them as nostalgic artifacts, but I now recognize it points to this broader event and a diversity of individual experiences of the same geopolitical moment. Curator: Exactly! The apparent randomness of a family album gives it this sense of a ‘slice of life,’ but the curation itself tells its own story, subtly reflecting social norms and perhaps even unspoken political realities of the time. The images don’t necessarily tell the full truth by themselves. What do you think we can conclude from this “return journey?" Editor: I now understand how important it is to ask these big “Why?” questions that look into socio-political conditions of that particular time.