This is more than a moment captured in time. These are several moments, three to four seconds to be precise, and what they depict is a hellish scene that men far braver than I will ever be experienced over France.
The scene is from World War 2 and the location is Brest, France. What you’re seeing is a long exposure of the tracer bullets and heavy artillery/antiaircraft fire that was thrown into the heavens at the attacking Royal Air Force. Thin lines are tracer shells while the thicker lines are heavier guns meant to blow bombers out of the sky.
The camera is mounted on an unknown British aeroplane, looking down at the factories and buildings of Brest below. Like I said, utterly hellish. [In Focus]