Bevrijding Amsterdam 1945

This photograph, taken by Willem van de Poll, captures the liberation of Amsterdam. It's a small, square image, a moment frozen in shades of grey, and I'm immediately struck by its texture. There's a grittiness, almost like you can feel the rough surface of the paper and the contrast between the dark, dense crowds and the lighter sky. My eye keeps getting drawn to the windows, each one a little rectangle framing a different scene of celebration. Some have flags, others have waving figures, all these different shapes and patterns of light making a complicated whole. It reminds me of how we piece together memories, how each fragment contributes to a larger story. Just like in a painting, the artist is working with the light and the dark to produce a layered image, and there's such an incredible energy that emerges from that process. It's chaotic, but also incredibly human. Like a Kurt Schwitters collage, it's a total sensory overload. And that's what makes it so compelling.