Borculo -- Na de cycloon op 10 augustus 1925 1925

Weenenk & Snel made this photograph of Borculo after the cyclone of August 10, 1925. It’s a small image, not a big, impressive history painting, but that’s fine, it captures so much. The photograph is all tonal greys and browns, not too much contrast, like a memory. I love the physicality of the scene – the broken beams and smashed brickwork piled up in the streets. There’s a figure on a ladder, scrambling to repair the damaged roof, the ladder feels precarious. It’s the details that make it. Look at how the light catches the edge of the broken roof tiles, or the way the sky seems heavy with unshed rain. It reminds me of some of Eugène Atget’s photographs of Paris, where he documented the streets and buildings with such tenderness. There’s a sense of time passing, but also of resilience. It captures a moment of devastation, but also, maybe, the beginning of a new phase. Art can’t tell you exactly what to think, it can only open up a space for feeling, and maybe, for hope.