Holding the line near Dickebush before our final assault on Messines Ridge, June 7th, 1917 Possibly 1917

This black and white photograph titled, ‘Holding the line near Dickebush before our final assault on Messines Ridge, June 7th, 1917’ by Realistic Travels, captures a moment in time, and the time is war. I’m struck by the physical texture of this image, a kind of emotional earthiness. Imagine the artist observing the scene, trying to capture the tension and exhaustion etched on the faces of the soldiers. There’s something so heavy about the way the figures sit, slumped over in wait. The figures blend into the earth around them, becoming one with the landscape of war. The palette is limited, almost monochromatic, but that adds to the somber mood. It reminds me of Goya’s war paintings, and that conversation painters have about violence across time. Realistic Travels, Goya, they're all grappling with the same thing: how to make sense of something that defies reason. For me, painting, like this photograph, is about asking questions rather than providing answers.