Personenauto's worden op het dek van de oceaanstomer getakeld, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Frankrijk 1936

This is Wouter Cool's photograph of cars being loaded onto a ship in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. It’s a photograph, of course, but I can't help but imagine the scene as a painting, a study in grey and white, with touches of dark and light, a little like Whistler. Think about the moment Cool captured: cars dangling precariously from cranes, suspended between the solid deck of the ship and the churning sea. I'm getting seasick just imagining it! What was Cool thinking as he framed this shot? Was he interested in capturing the technological feat, the sheer scale of industrial activity? Or was he drawn to the human element, the figures observing the process with a mix of anticipation and anxiety? You know, photography is a conversation, a kind of call and response across time. Like painting, it embodies ambiguity, uncertainty. There’s never just one way to read an image like this. What do you see?