Foto uit archief Philip Zilcken after 1914

This photograph, taken by an anonymous artist, captures a scene of devastation. A huge hand looms over a city, dropping bombs that explode in bursts of light. The image likely emerged from the interwar period in Europe. You can feel the collective anxiety about future conflict and the way new technologies, like aerial bombardment, might obliterate familiar ways of life. Notice how the artist deploys potent religious symbolism, the hand of God, to suggest a divine judgment, or perhaps the indifference of the universe to human suffering. The anonymity of the artist speaks to the widespread sense of vulnerability and fear at this time. To fully understand this photograph, we might consult archives of political pamphlets, newspapers, and even popular songs from the period. In doing so, we would recover the social and institutional contexts that gave rise to such powerful expressions of unease. Through a study of that kind, the photograph becomes a window onto a lost world.