Militairen voor een auto 1941 - 1945

Editor: Here we have an image entitled "Militairen voor een auto," taken sometime between 1941 and 1945. It's a gelatin-silver print, so a photograph, and it gives me such a somber, controlled feeling. What do you make of it? Curator: Well, focusing on its materiality, we can see it’s not just an image, but a physical object produced through specific industrial processes: the gelatin-silver print. The very act of capturing this moment was a result of wartime technology, a specific consumption of resources dedicated to manufacturing photographic equipment and materials. Editor: Right, the materiality links it directly to the war effort. I hadn't thought of it that way. Curator: Exactly. Now, consider the subject, the soldier and the car. These are not neutral elements. They are products of labor, war machinery—symbols of industrial power. What’s implied by that small flag attached to the vehicle? What social context produced that vehicle in the first place, in what economic conditions, by whom? These are important considerations. Editor: So, you’re saying we need to see the car not just as a car but as an artifact shaped by labor, industry, and ideology of wartime? Curator: Precisely. And, that image produced isn’t an objective mirror to reality. Its production required materials extracted, assembled and consumed at scale; resources potentially diverted from another purpose. Editor: That gives me so much to consider that I didn't initially see, viewing this photograph as a document rooted in material realities. Curator: It's all about the tangible aspects! Thinking about art this way, shifts focus from mere aesthetics to the tangible and industrial forces which create it.