Slachtoffers van de slag bij Tianjin tijdens de Bokseropstand Possibly 1900 - 1914

This stereograph, “Slachtoffers van de slag bij Tianjin tijdens de Bokseropstand” captures a scene following the Boxer Rebellion. It’s an image, a document, and as such, it’s about the recording, the fixing, of a single moment. The sepia tones give the whole scene a kind of eerie timelessness, but then you notice the bodies in the foreground and the soldiers on the wall and you’re dragged into the harsh reality of what’s being depicted. The texture is all grit and dust. Look how the photographer lets the light and shadow fall, creating depth, almost sculptural form from the devastation. There’s a tension here. The way the bodies are strewn feels almost casual, but the overall effect is deeply unsettling. It’s like the photographer wants us to see, but also keeps a distance. In some ways this reminds me of the war photography of someone like Roger Fenton, documenting a similar moment but halfway across the world 50 years earlier. There’s a kind of coldness to these images, something about the way the process itself seems to remove any sense of the photographer’s presence.