S.O. Goenoengsari. Montage kookpannen van uit de sorteerkisten gezien. 1 Juni 1927. 1927

This photograph titled 'S.O. Goenoengsari. Montage kookpannen van uit de sorteerkisten gezien. 1 Juni 1927' captures an industrial interior somewhere in the Dutch East Indies. The image is a study in grey, a muted palette that brings a sense of uniformity to the complex machinery and the lone figure peering out from one of the tanks. The photograph's surface is smooth, almost clinical, which contrasts strangely with the rugged, utilitarian forms it depicts. It's intriguing how the photographer frames the human element within these massive structures. The figure looks almost dwarfed by the scale of the cooking pans, which gives you a sense of the industrial process as both grand and alienating. This image reminds me a little of Bernd and Hilla Becher, who also documented industrial structures. But while the Bechers were interested in typology, this photograph feels more like a study of scale, labour and the human place within this. It's a moment captured, a question posed, rather than a statement made.