Dijkherstel, december 1954 1954

This image shows a group of workers on a shore, taken by Nieuwenhuijs in December 1954. What was Nieuwenhuijs thinking when he raised the camera to capture these workers repairing the dike? Maybe he was thinking about the social fabric, and how our lives are bound together by labor and necessity. Look at how the lines of the ropes converge and diverge, creating a rhythmic pattern that is both chaotic and orderly. The composition creates a space of visual tension, where the rough texture of the rocks contrasts with the smooth surface of the water, inviting us to consider our relationship with the world. It reminds me a bit of Van Gogh and his paintings of laborers out in the fields. Photography, like painting, is a form of embodied expression that embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations, always in conversation with what's come before.