Instructie gebruik mortier 1940 - 1945

This photograph, titled Instructie gebruik mortier, resides at the Rijksmuseum and we don't know who made it or when. It's a small thing, measuring only 65 by 100mm. I imagine the photographer, whoever they were, standing back to try to capture the instruction and trying to find a composition that would allow them to be discreet in the crowd. I wonder if they hesitated to capture this image and what that moment felt like for them. For me, the photograph becomes a site of inquiry, a question, shifting and emerging through time and the different contexts in which the photo has been seen since it was taken. Each person who views the photo is in conversation with the photographer and, now, with us. This inspires my creativity to make marks and think through a creative problem.