Jeugdstormers marcheren door een bos 1934 - 1944

This photograph, of members of the Jeugdstorm marching through a forest, was made by the NSB. It's a small picture and it's printed in a high contrast black and white. All the tonal range is really concentrated, giving it a stark quality that is both unsettling and strangely beautiful. The scene is dominated by the dense lines of the trees which are paralleled and echoed by the long procession of people and instruments. This ordered arrangement and the crisp monochromatic palette bring a hyper-realism to the work, a sense of photographic objectivity that can often conceal as much as it reveals. The eye is drawn to the areas where the light catches on the surface of the drums. These moments of contrast also function as ruptures or interruptions, and it's in these details that we can start to ask questions about the image and it's complex layering of subjectivities. Artists such as Gerhard Richter have explored similar themes, particularly the relationship between personal memory and collective history, reminding us that art is always a conversation.