Vier gezichten op Hamburg, afgebeeld een standbeeld van Lessing, een standbeeld van Schiller, de Kaiser Karl-Brunnen en de Hansabrunnen 1894

This photographic print by Wilhelm Dreesen captures four distinct views of Hamburg. The composition is rigidly organized, with each view neatly compartmentalized. The subjects are statues and fountains, rendered in grayscale. The texture gives a sense of timelessness, perhaps hinting at a longing for an idealised past. Each quadrant presents a different monument, but together they suggest a constructed cultural landscape. The monuments, rendered in similar shades, almost merge together. This implies an artificial flattening of history into a series of equivalent symbols. The city's identity is therefore presented as a curated set of heroic images. Consider how the artist uses the structured format to frame the city. The arrangement invites us to consider not only the individual monuments, but also the act of representation itself. How does Dreesen use this framework to engage with ideas of memory and representation?