Hoogstraat en omgeving 1940

This is Alie Rondberg-Vrauwdêunt’s photo album page of ‘Hoogstraat en omgeving’, we don’t know exactly when it was made. This scrapbook page collages four images of bomb-damaged urban spaces. The pale cream page is an eerie backdrop for the greyscale of the photographs, the only colour being provided by the handwritten note, 'Hoogstraat en omgeving', its looping script adding a personal touch, an insistence on the specificity of place. The images themselves are stark, offering glimpses into a shattered world, one that recalls the work of Gerhard Richter, particularly his photo paintings. There’s a similar interest in the ways photography can flatten and abstract, rendering the familiar strange and unsettling. Look at the top left image, the way the devastation sprawls across the frame, a landscape of debris and ruin. It’s easy to get lost in the detail, the individual marks of destruction, yet it all coalesces into a powerful statement about loss and resilience. Like all art, this piece leaves space for multiple interpretations and emotional resonances.