Militairen bij een veldhospitaal aan het front in de Dolomieten, vermoedelijk Italianen 1916

Henri de Rothschild, who lived from 1872 to 1947, made this photograph, titled ‘Militairen bij een veldhospitaal aan het front in de Dolomieten, vermoedelijk Italianen’—or ‘Soldiers at a field hospital on the front in the Dolomites, presumably Italians’—at an unknown date. What was it like for Henri to be there? I can only imagine how it might feel, to be on the front with a camera. Is it a distraction or a way to document the scene? Either way it means coming very close to life and death. The sepia tones are like a curtain that softens the scene, turning the moment into something else entirely. The photo, with its somewhat muted palette, is both still and full of hidden activity. What does it mean to catch these folks in-between? They stand so still but somehow so full of being. The composition is so beautiful and simple.