Nieuwe huizen 1946 - 1947

This black and white photograph, "Nieuwe Huizen", now at the Rijksmuseum, captures a moment of rebuilding, or maybe just building, it’s hard to tell sometimes isn’t it? There’s a sort of starkness to the image. It feels really process oriented, a document of labor, with men and trucks scattered across a raw, torn-up landscape, but then again, it’s quite beautiful in it’s own way. I am really drawn to the piles of rubble in the foreground. The light and shadow create a texture, a visual language of destruction and reconstruction. The diagonal lines of their shovels, cutting into the earth is striking. It makes me think about how the smallest gesture can alter the whole composition, the narrative. It reminds me of some of the WPA photography from the 30s, but with a slightly different vibe, perhaps a more optimistic one. Anyway, it's a good reminder that art, like life, is always in progress, always under construction.