Ondergrondse Benzine-tanks Possibly 1938 - 1939

This photograph, Ondergrondse Benzine-tanks, shows a scene with two large metal tanks dominating the foreground, all in shades of grey and brown. The tones are muted, like an old memory. There's a real feeling of the industrial age, captured so perfectly in this image. I notice the texture of the tanks, almost like weathered skin, and how that contrasts with the delicate lines of the metalwork in the factory roof. These kinds of scenes speak to me about the hidden, functional spaces of our world – the kind that fuel progress. It is the scale that gets me. There is a man standing by one of the tanks, and the fact that he is so small compared to it makes me feel the vastness of the industrial landscape. This picture feels like a nod to artists like Bernd and Hilla Becher, who catalogued industrial structures. It’s an image that reminds us to find beauty and a type of abstract form in the unexpected corners of our world.