Making Apparatus for Laboratory c. 1937

Here's a black and white photograph by Lewis Hine, showing a man making laboratory apparatus, sometime in the early to mid-20th century. I find myself wondering what it might have been like to be this glassblower. I imagine him carefully heating the glass, rotating it slowly in the flame. With each practiced movement, he is building a system, a network, not unlike the gestures of painting. Look at that flame, so precisely directed. The way the glass glows orange where the heat is most intense, like the moment when a brushstroke catches the light just right, revealing its energy and movement. The glass seems to be taking on a life of its own, bending and shaping into forms both functional and, dare I say, beautiful. It puts me in mind of the surrealist project of making objects for experiments! And now I wonder if this image has inspired other artists. I bet it has. Artists, after all, are always looking, borrowing, and reimagining what they see. We're all in this ongoing conversation, across time and medium.