Sf. Kemanglen Tweelingmachine voor onafhankelijke aandrijving rietcarrier / Sf. Padjarakan Stoomgedreven ruwsappomp 1916 - 1924

This photographic print from an unknown date and by an anonymous artist offers three studies of sugar factory machines. There's something beautiful in the sharp focus of the photographs, they give these industrial machines a strange presence, like a portrait. The artist has framed the image and carefully considered the light. Did they consider themselves an artist or simply a recorder? The machines dominate the frame with a bold, straightforward approach, capturing the industrial setting and its working parts, each pipe and cylinder detailed with a loving gaze. It's about the surface, the metal, the rivets. It reminds me of the work of other photographers such as Bernd and Hilla Becher, who also captured industrial buildings with a similar sense of objectivity. The images remind us how artists are in an ongoing conversation, sharing and inspiring one another’s creativity. Perhaps this image will inspire the creation of an entirely new machine.