Twee mannen in Volendamse klederdracht lopend op een dijk c. 1900 - 1910

Curator: This gelatin-silver print, entitled "Twee mannen in Volendamse klederdracht lopend op een dijk," or "Two men in Volendam costume walking on a dike", captures a scene from around 1900-1910. The photographer is unknown, a little mysterious if you ask me, but the image speaks volumes about Dutch rural life at the time. Editor: It's strangely haunting, isn't it? The soft grey tones give it this ghostly quality, as if we're peering into a distant memory. Those two figures in their traditional Volendam attire... there’s something so stoic and steadfast about them. Curator: The choice of medium adds so much, it invites reflection on representation of regional identities at the time. Gelatin silver prints were the dominant photographic process during this period and their popularity enabled widespread consumption of imagery reinforcing specific notions of cultural belonging. The image performs more than a simple portrait of those Dutch farmers in their attires: it evokes powerful sentiments on nationhood and traditions. Editor: Absolutely. And it makes you wonder about the unseen. I see the careful composition: the two men evenly positioned between an old shed and distant barns, they must have spent hours working the fields, carrying untold stories within those garments. Is that wistfulness I’m picking up from that overcast sky? Or am I just projecting? Curator: Well, projections are never completely unfounded, right? I read here this was most likely commissioned, for postcards. Editor: Ah! Postcards! The Instagram of its day. Suddenly, that carefully constructed scene clicks into place. Curator: Exactly! They were sending this out, a digestible version of the "authentic" Dutch identity to who knows where. It's carefully constructed—it served very specific purpose of projecting Dutch image around the world. This simple composition ended up reinforcing societal norms of this particular moment in history, and it becomes difficult to disentangle their intent from this historical artifact. Editor: So, a manufactured authenticity… That somber mood I sensed – maybe it’s the awareness that the world they represent, this painstakingly captured Dutch tableau, was already on its way out. I like the weight of that. Curator: Photography has done many wonders; it froze time for these two, it made them travel through time with us. How beautiful. Editor: Yes, we walked a mile with them on this road... that feeling I will carry home, definitely.