Acht wandbruggen Possibly 1931 - 1934

This photograph from 1931 shows eight bridge sections, likely made of steel. We don’t know who took the picture, but it captures a fascinating moment in the production of infrastructure. The sheer scale and weight of the bridge sections are immediately apparent, emphasizing their material presence. Notice the modular construction, held together by countless rivets. This reveals a process of fabrication that values precision and repetition; probably these components were made with some degree of automation, and then assembled by skilled laborers. The image suggests an efficient system of production – a well-oiled machine, in a sense, that is geared toward the expansion of trade and transportation. The bridges were destined for the Dutch East Indies, revealing how this process was embedded in a colonial context. Ultimately, this image prompts us to consider the labor, technology, and social forces involved in the creation of even the most utilitarian of objects, and challenges our conventional ideas about the meaning of design and craft.