Ruines de Lille (Ruins of Lille) Ypres, vue generale (View of Ypres/Ieper) c. 1918

This photograph of the ruins of Ypres might have been captured with a large format camera, maybe on a tripod – imagine the photographer carefully composing the shot, trying to capture the scale of devastation. I think they might have been thinking about the human cost, the loss of life and the destruction of culture, while they were lining up that perfect shot. I wonder if they saw the image as a statement, or just a record. Look at the tonal range. The contrast is amazing. It's stark, almost brutal. The image becomes a canvas, and the gradations of light are the brushstrokes, highlighting the textures of broken stone and twisted metal. Photographs like this remind us of the power of art to document, to provoke, and to engage us in conversations about history and memory. Artists are always talking to one another across time, constantly riffing off each other's ideas.