Machineonderdeel 1931 - 1937

This unnamed photograph of a machine part in the Rijksmuseum feels so formal, so... official. It's a straight-on shot, almost like a mugshot for a boiler, with all those regimented vertical lines and monochromatic tones. The surface quality is stark, no soft focus or atmospheric haze here. It's all about the textures, you know? The cool metal of the pipes against the corrugated background makes me think of industrial spaces, echoing with hisses and clanks. Look at the way the light catches on the round valve. A beautiful little focal point, like a pearl in a machine. It reminds me a bit of the austere, geometric photography of the Bauhaus, or even some of Bernd and Hilla Becher's typologies of industrial structures. But here, without a known artist, it’s as if the machine is declaring its own existence, making a statement about what it *is* rather than what it *means*. And really, isn't that what art is all about, too?