Our Department Assaults An Enemy Trap On The Top Of The Tuckett Spitz, At 3469 Meters 1915

Achille Beltrame made this image of soldiers assaulting a trap on Tuckett Spitz, at 3469 meters. Look at the way the figures sort of emerge, through these strokes of brown and grey, they’re not really delineated. It’s all about that feeling of a tense ascent, in a cold climate. Beltrame seems interested in the process of image-making, he is not trying to trick us into thinking this is a photo. The soldiers are climbing in different ways, some reaching up, others pulling themselves up. The texture of the rock is evoked through hatched lines, which gives the impression of grit and cold. Down to the bottom left, a line of soldiers snakes into the distance, a chilling reminder of the many lives involved. It reminds me of the work of Kathe Kollwitz, who uses a similar limited palette to evoke great emotional depth. It’s about the human condition. There’s a strange kind of beauty in the image, but it’s a beauty that comes from something very serious.