The Unsated Earth 1940 - 1944

Jaromír Funke made this gelatin silver print titled 'The Unsated Earth'. I'm really interested in the way that the statue of a child is caught in the frame, and how the plants are starting to engulf its plinth. It makes me wonder about time, and mortality. There is a stillness to the image, but the name hints at something unresolved. Was Funke thinking about the speed of modern life? The constant demand of society? There’s a lot of photography like this from the early 20th century – I’m thinking of Atget – where there's a certain light and shadow play of everyday things, but always just slightly off-kilter. These artists were working out how to see the world at that time, what to pay attention to. The way they looked at the world still informs the way we see today. It’s a conversation that continues to this day.