Ruïnes van gebouwen bij de Kolk te Rotterdam c. 1940 - 1945

J. Nolte's photograph captures the ruined buildings near the Kolk in Rotterdam with what looks like stark monochrome film. The process here is less about embellishment, and more about stark reality. What strikes me is the texture, or lack thereof. It's almost too smooth, too clean for what it depicts. It's like the devastation has been flattened, ironed out. This speaks to me of memory, how time smooths the sharp edges of trauma, not erasing it, but making it bearable. Look closely at the buildings in the background. They loom like ghosts, skeletal remains against a pale sky. This kind of starkness reminds me of some of the earlier documentary work by someone like Bernd and Hilla Becher, but with a rawness that is singular to Nolte, and reflective of the subject matter. It's a sobering reminder that art, even in its most straightforward forms, can hold multiple layers of meaning.