Gezicht op Maastricht 1893

This photograph captures Maastricht, its buildings frozen in a moment of time. But look closer, and you’ll see that the spires of churches dominate the skyline. These aren’t just buildings; they are symbolic expressions of faith and community. Consider the towering presence of the church. It’s a motif repeated across cultures and centuries. These upward-reaching structures are more than architectural feats; they are attempts to bridge the earthly and the divine, a visual echo of humanity’s spiritual aspirations. In other times and places, the ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia served a similar purpose, with their stepped platforms and the idea of ascending towards the heavens. These are all part of what I call our image memory. They are visual vocabularies that recur across cultures. The verticality of these monuments speaks to our subconscious longing for transcendence. They also demonstrate the cyclical and resurfacing of these visual symbols, evolving and taking on new meanings throughout history.