Rapid fire! Having found the range, our guns-one is seen in recoil-make it hot for the Bosche 1914 - 1918

This photomechanical print by Realistic Travels shows a dramatic scene: guns in recoil firing on the front line. It’s interesting to think about what a work of art like this might have meant when it was first made, and what it might mean to us now. I imagine the photographer crouched, framing, and clicking, trying to capture the truth of the scene and somehow process the complexity of war. I can see the blur of smoke, the rough texture of the sandbags, and the solid, geometric forms of the cannons. Each mark is a trace of a gesture, an attempt to record, to document, to make sense. In a way, this image and the act of its making feels connected to my own painting process, a process of shifting, emerging, and resolving as the surface comes to life. The act of observing, composing, and then presenting asks us, the viewers, to contemplate the costs of war and reflect on our own place within it.