Rotterdam nach dem deutschen Bombardement! 1940 - 1946

This spread of photographs, titled "Rotterdam after the German Bombardment!" captures scenes of devastation, likely assembled into an album by an anonymous artist. I’m imagining the artist piecing together these fragmented images. It’s not just about documenting, but also trying to make sense of the senseless. What were they thinking as they arranged them in the album? The greyscale lends a sense of stark reality. The surface of the photographic paper is matte and has the feel of found evidence, a kind of witness. The textures of destruction: crumbled buildings, twisted metal, and empty window frames speak volumes. You get a sense of lives interrupted, and the haunting absence of what once was. Thinking about other artists and their response to atrocity, I think about Goya's "Disasters of War," a series of etchings capturing the horrors of conflict. It is the artist's attempt to give form to trauma and leave a lasting comment on human suffering. Anonymous or Goya, these are the artists’ responses across time, using art to confront the unspeakable.