Ruïnes bij de Korte Hoogstraat en het Steiger te Rotterdam c. 1940 - 1945

J. Nolte made this photograph called *Ruïnes bij de Korte Hoogstraat en het Steiger te Rotterdam*. It’s a black and white shot of… Rotterdam, but like, after something terrible has happened. You know, when you look at it, you can almost feel what it must have been like to be there, trying to capture the moment, the sheer devastation. Nolte’s probably thinking about the weight of what they’re seeing, trying to find some kind of order in all that mess. The texture of the ruins is incredible. All that grit and rubble - the rough edges of what was once whole, solid. Think of Goya, but with buildings. I wonder if Nolte felt a bit like a war painter, you know? Like they were there to witness and record, to make sense of the chaos, but also to show it like it is. The grey palette really hits home. It’s not just a photo, it's a feeling. And those buildings, or what's left of them, they're screaming, aren't they? All the painters who have tried to capture their experience of war are screaming with them.