levelling the Road with a Roller 1910 - 1913

This small photograph shows a steamroller machine leveling ground, we don't know when or by whom. But you can imagine the photographer looking for the right angle, framing the shot, and then waiting for the light to be just so. I wonder, what kind of road is being prepared here? Is it a dirt track for ox-drawn carts? Or for the first automobiles? And look at the two men, one on the machine and one standing at the side: what are they thinking? Are they proud of their work? Are they dreaming of the future that they are building? The picture is very muted. It’s almost as if the photograph itself has been flattened by the machine. The men, the machine, the landscape, the road, all appear to be having a conversation about labor and progress. Photographs like this one were certainly not made in isolation. I imagine that this photographer knew the work of other photographers and artists before them. They were also thinking about progress and change. They were also part of a bigger story.