Graf van Gerhard Neumann, een gevallen Duitse militair van de Kriegsmarine Possibly 1943 - 1947

This small black and white photograph in the Rijksmuseum shows the grave of Gerhard Neumann, a fallen German soldier. I imagine the anonymous photographer carefully composing this shot. It’s a straightforward image, a stark cross rising from the earth. I can't help but think about the person behind the camera, what they might have been feeling, what they wanted to communicate with this image. Maybe they knew Gerhard, maybe they just wanted to document the reality of war. The cross feels heavy, monumental, but the photograph is intimate and small. It makes me think about all of the anonymous photographers who were carefully recording a world in turmoil. How do we look at a photograph like this today? What do we do with something so loaded? It’s a hard question. It asks a lot of us. And maybe it is the questions that are the point, rather than any easy answer. Each photograph, like each painting, enters into a larger conversation about how we see, remember, and represent the world. They linger, stirring up new questions across time.