Volkmar Wentzel’s camera captures stunning images of Washington: street lights glisten through the fog of late-night D.C. and reflect off the rain-slicked streets, giving familiar sights a mysterious quality. “I was enchanted by the ethereal images revealed by the witchery of night,” reads one wall of the exhibit. The magic in the photos is clear.
These spectacular photographs of the District, and others never before exhibited, make up Silver Mysteries: Black & White Photographs of 1930s Washington, currently on display at the Decatur House. The exhibit is a series of photographs taken during the period from 1935-37 that sparked the beginning of Volkmar Wentzel’s brilliant career.
After photographing Washington by night, Wentzel became a staff writer and photographer for National Geographic, a job that he held for 48 years. As a new resident of the District, Wentzel captured the beauty of Washington at night, in the snow and in the rain. In addition to his photographs of Washington’s monuments and landmarks, the collection includes candid photographs of Washingtonians, both at work and at play.
In the small upstairs rooms of one of the oldest surviving homes in Washington, the collection of photographs seems slightly limited. The space is small and some photographs are on display through doorways to a narrow hallway. The exhibit’s space lacks any interesting qualities and has clearly been recently renovated. This is disappointing, given the historic nature of the house.
The drab environment isn’t a major problem: Wentzel’s daytime photos are impressive in their own right. A photograph of a sculpture in the garden of what is now The Organization of American States headquarters is intriguing next to the familiar sights of the Capitol, the White House and the Washington Monument. Although not as eerie or representative of the city as the others, the shot emphasizes Wentzel’s talent for producing mystical photographs.
Many of his daytime photographs are reminders of the change that the city has undergone in the 70 years since they were taken: a horse-drawn buggy crosses Memorial Bridge and neighborhoods now worth millions are shown here as slums.
While the strength of the exhibit lies in his photographs of the city, his photos of people are also beautiful. The portraits taken indoors are less captivating partly because they lack the natural light or the glow of street lights that lend his outdoor photos their surreal quality. A candid shot of two guards sitting outside at a tram stop on a winter night is one of Wentzel’s “ethereal images revealed by the witchery of night.” However, photos from a party in his boarding house more closely resemble personal mementos and prove less compelling than his other works.
From the buildings to the people, this taste of Wentzel’s work leaves the visitor eager for more, of which there is plenty.
The Decatur house is located at 1610 H St. and is open Tues.-Sat. 10:00 a.m.—5:00 p.m. and Sun. noon—4:00 pm. The exhibit will be on display until April 15, 2007.
