Duitse militairen bij een bunker aan de Noordzeekust 1940 - 1944

This is a photograph from an album page titled, "Duitse militairen bij een bunker aan de Noordzeekust," or, "German soldiers at a bunker on the North Sea coast," and made by an anonymous photographer. There are six snapshots, each documenting various bunkers along the coast and the soldiers who manned them. I love how unassuming these photographs are. The compositions are simple, almost artless. And yet, there’s something deeply affecting about them. They reveal the banality of war, its everydayness. Look at the fourth snapshot; the texture of the bunker, the way the light catches the woven material. It has this strange beauty. It reminds me of the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, their typologies of industrial structures, but with this added layer of human presence, of lives lived in the shadow of conflict. It’s a reminder that art doesn’t always need to be monumental or grand. Sometimes, the most powerful statements are the quietest ones.