Eugen Wachenheimer poseert met bij een auto met twee soldaten en bij de watervallen van Kostenets, 1926, Bulgarije 1926

This photograph, taken by a member of the Wachenheimer family in 1926 in Bulgaria, captures a moment with Eugen Wachenheimer posing jauntily by a car. It’s one of a pair of images pasted into what looks like a photo album. The images are black and white and the whole page is tinged yellow with age. There are some brown smudges on the paper like ghosts or stains. In the photo on the left, Eugen poses with a car and two soldiers. There’s an amazing contrast here between Eugen’s smart suit and the soldier’s more functional clothing. The snapshot quality gives it an immediacy. The contrast between the formal pose and the slightly askew angle feels intimate, like a shared joke or a fleeting moment. The whole album page with it's smudges feels like an important piece of material culture, hinting at the passing of time and the way images persist to tell us something about the past. Think of the work of Gerhard Richter and his use of old photographs as inspiration for paintings. It’s all about how we can bring the past into the present.