Ruïne van het station te Rotterdam c. 1940 - 1945

This black and white photograph of the ruined Rotterdam train station by J. Nolte captures devastation with a kind of stark beauty. It's like looking at a drawing, the tones so carefully balanced between light and shadow. The texture here is palpable, even through the photo. You can almost feel the rough edges of the broken bricks and the smooth emptiness of the window frames. I keep coming back to the sky – how it looms with its grainy, uncertain depth, a kind of visual metaphor for the unknown future. The image reminds me of some of Gerhard Richter’s black and white paintings, the way he uses blur to evoke memory and trauma. This photograph is less about documentation and more about feeling – a kind of meditation on loss, and the strange, enduring power of ruins.