Rotterdam gebombardeerd 1940 - 1945

These six photographs of the bombing of Rotterdam are stuck into the pages of a scrapbook. The greyscale images contain so much black, it seeps into the edges of the world. I imagine someone finding these photographs, feeling compelled to stick them down. What do you do with a world fallen apart? How do you record such a stark loss? It's like the opposite of painting. Instead of building up, you’re taking away. Making a mark by noting an absence. There’s something about the amateur nature of the scrapbook, the way the images are pasted a little off-kilter, that makes it more poignant. It’s not about getting the framing right; it's about bearing witness. It reminds me that art, in all its forms, is a way to process, to remember, and to connect with others. Whether it’s painting, photography, or even pasting pictures in a book, we're all just trying to make sense of the world around us.