Locomotief, Rocky Mountains, Verenigde Staten 1936

Wouter Cool made this photo of a locomotive in the Rocky Mountains sometime in his lifetime, before 1947. It makes me think about the intense curiosity and care that goes into making something like this. Can you imagine what it must have been like to create this locomotive? You have to have a deep understanding of mechanics, mathematics, and the physical properties of metal and fire. It's a testament to human ingenuity and our ability to transform raw materials into complex systems. I bet Cool was thinking along these lines, too. He wanted to capture something essential about this machine and its relationship to the landscape. Just look at the scale of it! It's as though Cool were saying something about human ambition, about connecting different points in a landscape, and also about the possibilities of industrial progress.