Militairen bij een 75 mm luchtdoelkanon op een draaiend affuit in de bossen van de Dolomieten, vermoedelijk Italianen 1916

Editor: This gelatin-silver print, taken in 1916, is titled "Soldiers with a 75 mm anti-aircraft gun on a rotating mount in the forests of the Dolomites, probably Italians," attributed to Henri de Rothschild. What strikes me is how *ordinary* it seems. Not a battle scene, just men and machines in a quiet forest. What do you see in it? Curator: It's that deceptive ordinariness that I find so compelling! Doesn’t it whisper volumes about the Great War? This isn't propaganda. There's a strangely beautiful tension in that stillness. This slice of "realism," isn’t romanticizing or demonizing, just capturing a rather odd industrial still life in nature’s beautiful Cathedral! Editor: Industrial still life is such an interesting phrase here! Why is that? Curator: Precisely! Consider the trees against the manufactured precision of the cannon. Henri seems drawn to this tension, almost as if highlighting our contradictory nature to both protect and destroy nature itself, maybe it reminds us that war isn’t distant bravery, but a long monotonous struggle in nature. Makes you ponder, doesn’t it? Editor: It certainly does. I hadn’t considered it in terms of contradictions before. Thank you! Curator: My pleasure! It’s these little historical, emotional and psychological "whiplashes" from art that truly resonate, aren’t they? They're a powerful reminder to engage more, question, think...feel.