Grand Coulee Dam, Columbia River, Verenigde Staten: bouwen van de fundering 1936

This photograph by Wouter Cool captures the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River as its foundations were being constructed, using a monochromatic palette that emphasizes form and process. The photo is so process-oriented, you can almost smell the grease and metal of the machines! Cool has captured a moment of intense human effort, the landscape itself seems to be in motion as it’s being reshaped. The scaffolding and structures appear almost like a drawing – all linear perspective converging in space. The tonal range is carefully controlled, focusing on the textures of the earth and the geometric forms of the machinery. I'm struck by the way the lines of the scaffolding mimic the contours of the landscape, almost as if the dam is growing organically from the earth. It reminds me of the futurist architecture of someone like Sant'Elia, celebrating the dynamism of modern construction, even if the end result is something as ambivalent as a dam. It's a reminder that art, like engineering, is a way of transforming the world, one mark, one beam at a time.