Rotterdam! 1940 - 1946

Curator: This gelatin silver print, titled "Rotterdam!", dates from between 1940 and 1946 and resides here at the Rijksmuseum. It's credited to an anonymous photographer. The work comprises three photographs arranged on what appears to be a scrapbook page. Editor: Well, it hits you right away, doesn't it? The bleakness of it all. Those burnt-out buildings look like charcoal drawings against a grey sky. Like a city after a bad dream. It's raw, and feels… personal, somehow. Curator: The contrast between the ruined cityscapes and the seemingly casual arrangement hints at a tension between the desire to document objectively and the impossibility of remaining emotionally detached. The use of monochrome reinforces the sombre tone. Editor: It’s that handwritten "Rotterdam!" scrawled below the pictures. It adds a strange sort of… celebration, I guess? Even in devastation. Makes you wonder if it's triumphant or tragic, or just defiant. Curator: Indeed. The photographs themselves function almost as metonyms for the experience of war—fragments of a larger, catastrophic event distilled into portable, manageable images. Editor: There’s something so human about it being in what seems to be an old photo album. I picture someone flipping through these, remembering what was, seeing what is. A kind of quiet elegy to resilience, you might even say. What it must've felt like holding these memories… Curator: The composition forces a triangulation between the ruin, the observer, and the viewer. Editor: What remains, though, are questions about memory, loss, and humanity's ability to simultaneously destroy and create. This artist captured so much within a series of modest prints. Curator: A poignant visual document offering layered meaning. Editor: Quite so, very poignant indeed.