Gezicht op de Kathedraal van Manchester before 1878

This photograph by Alfred Brothers captures Manchester Cathedral, a towering symbol of faith and community. Notice how the cathedral dominates the urban landscape, its spires reaching towards the heavens, a motif as old as civilization itself. These vertical lines, directing our gaze upwards, echo the ancient obelisks of Egypt, or the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, all striving to connect earthly realms with the divine. Even the modern skyscraper, in its own way, continues this symbolic ascent. Consider how this striving towards the sky might reflect our deepest psychological yearning for transcendence. The image resonates with the collective human desire to rise above our earthly bounds, to touch something greater than ourselves. This quest, repeated across centuries and cultures, is what I call the afterlife of images. It is the eternal return of symbolic forms.