Drukkerij van de Deli Courant Possibly 1908 - 1910

This photograph, "Drukkerij van de Deli Courant," shows a printing press factory, and was shot at an unknown date by an anonymous photographer. It's an image full of complex machinery, but rendered in such a way that it becomes almost abstract. The photo is suffused with a kind of hazy light, a quality that softens the edges of the machines. The gears and wheels of the printing presses become like ghosts, caught in a moment of stillness. Look at the way the photographer captured the light filtering through the windows, creating a soft, diffused glow around the edges of the machines and figures. It's almost as if the whole scene is being printed in front of our eyes, a process of transformation and revelation. There is a beautiful ambiguity to this image, with its focus on capturing a kind of light and atmosphere in an industrial setting. You can see this concern with light in the work of someone like Gerhard Richter, who used photography as source material for painting. What is real, what is illusion, and what is caught in the process?