Inlevering van wapens door Duitse soldaten 1945

This small black and white photograph by Willem van de Poll captures a moment of surrender with German soldiers handing over their weapons. I wonder what it must have felt like to be van de Poll, camera in hand, recording such a charged scene. There's a strange mix of order and chaos here, the soldiers methodically piling up arms, while others stand around, waiting, watching. The ground is littered with weapons, a kind of still life of defeat. You can see the weight of history pressing down on them, but it’s also a study in human posture and the small, quiet movements that speak volumes. The weapons laid out like that, so many of them, abandoned. I'm reminded of other artists who've grappled with the aftermath of conflict, each finding their own way to make sense of the senseless. Ultimately, this photograph reminds us that every image is a conversation, a dialogue across time and space.