Dode Nederlandse soldaat c. 1940 - 1945

This photograph, ‘Dead Dutch Soldier’, was taken at an unknown date by an anonymous photographer. There’s a bleakness to this scene; it’s stark and unsentimental. I imagine the photographer, perhaps a soldier themselves, driven to capture this grim reality with a shaky hand. The greyscale tones amplify the desolation, each shade of grey a muted scream. It’s hard to look at, right? But there’s a strange kind of truth to it. It’s a document, but it’s also a kind of expression. It reminds me of some of the darker works of Goya, those raw depictions of war. It makes you think about what it’s like to be at war. And that’s important. This image, though simple, carries a weight of history and human experience.