Brennende Oeltanks 1940 - 1941

This photographic artwork titled 'Brennende Oeltanks', or 'Burning Oil Tanks', presents a series of stark monochrome images. The arrangement of the four framed photographs creates a grid, a formal structure which paradoxically contains scenes of chaos and destruction. The images are connected, each sharing a consistent palette of black and white, which intensifies the visual drama. The artist, anonymous, captures burning oil tanks with billowing smoke, creating a visceral emotional response. The smoke becomes a semiotic signifier, obscuring clarity and hinting at disruption. The images hint at the socio-political implications of industry and conflict during an unspecified time, destabilizing fixed notions. The work is more than a mere depiction of an event; it becomes a meditation on form, structure, and disorder. It challenges us to consider the complex interplay between the photograph as a document and as a medium capable of re-presenting meaning.