Vier mannen trekken een zwaar beladen kar, Shanghai 1902

This photograph of Shanghai was taken by Carleton Harlow Graves. It is a stereograph, a popular format in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that creates a 3D effect when viewed through a special device. The process of making stereographs was relatively straightforward: two photographs were taken simultaneously from slightly different angles, then mounted side-by-side. But while the technology may seem simple, the images they captured often reveal complex social realities. Here, we see four men, likely laborers, pulling a heavy cart. The strain on their bodies is palpable, their labor quite literally pulling Shanghai's economy forward. The photograph doesn't just document a scene; it speaks to the stark inequalities of the time, the human cost of progress, and the power dynamics at play in a rapidly industrializing world. It prompts us to consider the labor and social context embedded within this image, and its wider economic implications.