Energiecentrale Big Creek, Fresno, California, Verenigde Staten 1936

This is a black and white photograph of the Energiecentrale Big Creek in Fresno, California, taken by Wouter Cool. It’s an image that really leans into process. Cool plays with the contrast between the industrial architecture of the power plant and the natural, rugged landscape surrounding it. Look at how the stark white building pops against the dark, almost velvety texture of the mountainside. There’s a real tension in the image; it’s like the man-made structure is imposing itself on the wilderness, but also finding a strange harmony with it. The bridge in the foreground, with its crisscrossing beams, is particularly interesting to me. It’s a strong, linear element, but it also creates a kind of screen, a filter through which we view the power plant. It reminds me of some of Bernd and Hilla Becher’s photographs, the way they catalogued industrial structures with such cool detachment, and also of the work of Lewis Baltz, who was similarly interested in the poetics of industrial spaces. It's like these artists are having a visual conversation across time.