Uitje naar het Zuiderpark, Den Haag Possibly 1942 - 1945

This photo album page, titled "Uitje naar het Zuiderpark, Den Haag," was put together by an anonymous artist at an unknown date. What strikes me first is the process of arrangement. It feels almost like collage, a placing together of different elements. The small black and white photographs, carefully placed on the gray page, remind me of stills from a film. There is one image, in particular, that draws my eye, that of a soldier kneeling to pet a white dog. What is the relationship between these two figures? The texture of the print seems smooth, almost velvety, which contrasts with the harshness of the images. The way the photos are arranged, with text interspersed, makes me think of the work of Gerhard Richter. Richter, too, used photography and text to explore the ways in which images can be both revealing and concealing. This album page invites us to see the world in fragments, incomplete and open to interpretation.