Bochum Possibly 1939

This photographic album entitled ‘Bochum’, was made at an unknown date by an anonymous artist. It's a collection of images, snapshots almost, like visual notes of scenes in a place. I think about the act of collecting these images, what it must have been like to take them, place them into this book, to try and hold a place in your hands. The monochrome gives these images a real sense of history. It makes me wonder what was left out of the frame. What were they thinking when they chose these views? It all makes me think about memory, and how we try to hold onto things that are fleeting, and it reminds me of Gerhard Richter’s ‘Atlas’ project, a collection of photographs, clippings, and sketches that informed his paintings. It's all part of the same impulse, this collecting, this seeing, this trying to hold. Anonymous or not, it’s artists like these, they make you realize you're part of a continuum.