Vieux Port and Notre Dame de la Garde, Marseilles, France 1932

Henry J. Glintenkamp created this image of Vieux Port and Notre Dame de la Garde in Marseilles, France, using wood engraving to create a scene in black and white. I wonder if he’s ever felt that kind of pressure to capture everything, like he had to cram every detail into this one image. The ships loom in the foreground, their rigging almost touching the basilica perched atop the hill. You can almost feel the weight of the stone and the density of the crowd pressing in. Look at the lines etched into the ground, pulling you toward the horizon. Glintenkamp uses these lines not just to show the pier, but to create a kind of visual tension, a push and pull between the foreground and the background. It reminds me of the German Expressionists. They shared a similar sensibility, reflecting on the alienation of modern life. Artists don’t exist in a vacuum, you know? We’re all responding to each other, riffing on each other’s ideas, trying to make sense of the world in our own way.