Title: GB. WWII. Coventry. Bombings. November 14&15. 1940.
Date: 1940
Collection: Magnum Photos
Description: On the night of November 14, 1940, German planes bombed five cathedral towns in England. This photo was taken the morning after the raid, in the town of Coventry. In the photograph, a postman attempts to deliver a letter to an address that is now a smoking ruin.
The dark humor of this photo appeals to me, to think that if only the postman had been just one day earlier in delivering his letter...I have been to the remnants of Coventry's famous cathedral, which is still a pile of rubble to this day, so I have a personal connection to this photo. In addition, I like that this photo speaks to so many different aspects of the war: people going about their daily lives, as well as the terrible destruction and chaos that the war brought to Europe.
I love this photo too, although it still strikes me as more poignant than humorous - too much pain in that rubble. There is another Rodger photo showing a warden or policeman in a call box surrounded by ruins - that one I do find funny for some reason. We do tend to apply our own reactions to the images without necessarily understanding the full context or what the contemporary reaction might have been.
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