09
B+W
Above Plate LXXXIV
and Right Plate XXXVIII
1927 from Reims After the War
by Pierre Antony-Thouret.
The mutilated cathedral
in the devastated city.
Private collection, London.T
he question of remembering and
depicting events which occurred
in the past is one that has
challenged many writers, artists
and photographers over the past century,
particularly following World War II,
where distance and retrospect were vital
in helping to understand the conflict and
trauma experienced and witnessed by many.
A key example of this type of post-war
literature is Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-
Five (1969). Vonnegut was a prisoner of
war during the firebombing of Dresden in
February 1945, but survived the bombing.He emerged from his underground shelter
the following day unscathed to find a city
destroyed, flattened, surrounded only by
piles of still smouldering debris. As well as
the extended delay in time it took Vonnegut
to write Slaughterhouse-Five (24 years) he
also took an unconventional approach to
the concept of time itself shifting between
the past; wartime Dresden, his post-war
present; 1960s America, and the future.
When thinking about Vonnegut’s approach
to time, retrospect and looking back there are
interesting parallels to the way photographers
have made work about past conflicts,‘Images in the portfolio alternate between landscapes of the ruined city
and close-up images of debris, including an uncanny image of two priests
standing on a pile of rubble inside what remains of the cathedral.’08-14_CNFLCT-TM_PHTGRPHY_171 ER/MB.indd 0908-14_CNFLCT-TM_PHTGRPHY_171 ER/MB.indd 09 05/11/2014 10:2305/11/2014 10: