Ruïnes van gebouwen aan de Hoogstraat, gezien vanaf Oostplein te Rotterdam c. 1940 - 1945

This photograph was taken by J. Nolte in Rotterdam and depicts the ruins of buildings on Hoogstraat as seen from Oostplein. The tones are grey and black, so the shapes emerge from a play of light and dark. When I look at this image, I imagine Nolte, standing in what must have been a chaotic scene, trying to make sense of it all through his camera. It’s like he is sifting through the rubble to find the underlying structure, the composition amidst the destruction. There’s a kind of poetry in that, don’t you think? Painters like Anselm Kiefer come to mind; they, too, are fascinated by ruins. Maybe Nolte’s image is speaking to their work, or maybe Kiefer's work is speaking to Nolte’s image. They’re all part of a bigger conversation about memory, loss, and the passage of time. And me, well I guess I'm part of that conversation, too.