Brandende olietanks van Shell mei 1940 Possibly 1940 - 1945

Curator: This gelatin-silver print, possibly from between 1940 and 1945, is stark. It's called "Brandende olietanks van Shell mei 1940" or "Burning Shell Oil Tanks, May 1940," currently residing here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Devastating is the first word that comes to mind. Look at the way the dark plumes of smoke completely dominate the sky. It almost swallows the landscape beneath it. Curator: Absolutely, and in capturing that dominance, it's hinting at the enormity of war. Here you've got industrial targets, rendered anonymous in a way, reduced to mere fuel, while nature sort of observes it passively at the foreground. The photo is presented unceremoniously; that's part of the picture, a document. Editor: The smoke feels like the main subject—almost tangible, thick, and choking. One has to remember the process of creation itself and reflect on why somebody wanted to produce an image, given the obviously catastrophic conditions. Is there anything inherently beautiful in capturing it this way, or are the artist's means themselves an extension of a dark and consuming act? Curator: Well, it depends, doesn't it? A photograph is a product of its time, bound up with social anxieties, and shaped by technology available. The printing, the chemicals... they play a part. But I also see the possibility for resistance here, or for empathy with those on the ground as a kind of silent testimony. Editor: I agree that the composition here tells a larger story. A story not just of immediate devastation, but the kind that follows for days, weeks, or months. The labour to reconstruct, the social cost of pollution from industrial processes, the impact on everyday folk, captured and documented without a word or unnecessary intervention by its photographer. Curator: Yes, in the stark contrast, and in the anonymous capture, there's an echo of enduring tension: devastation versus preservation. It makes you pause and ponder what you prioritize. Editor: It’s about confronting a reality made by a world changing too fast, perhaps. A photographic reminder of where our ambitions may take us when unchecked.