Delville Wood, shattered in fierce struggles by the S. Africans, who heroically resisted fierce attacks after 1916

This steroscopic image of Delville Wood shows the aftermath of fierce battles, and the South African’s heroic resistance. The grey scale flattens any depth that might have been present in this landscape, turning it into a study of texture. The smoke is soft, chalky, almost like a charcoal drawing. But the foreground, with its splintered tree trunks, and pock-marked earth, is all spiky contrast. Look how the photographer captures the brokenness of the trees, those jagged edges that feel so violent and raw. The image is haunted by absences. Where are the soldiers? Where is the life that once inhabited this wood? The artist, ‘Realistic Travels’ perhaps understood that the real story lay not in depicting the battle itself, but in the haunting aftermath, a landscape scarred by trauma. It’s a bit like some of Gerhard Richter’s blurred war photography. Not pretty, but definitely powerful.