Braatdroger voor de theefabriek Kertamanah Possibly 1936 - 1939

This is an old photograph, of a tea-drying machine for the Kertamanah tea factory. It’s anonymous, so we don’t know who made it or when exactly, but it takes you somewhere. I am always interested in images of work. I guess I'm drawn to the anonymous photographer, who probably thought they were just making a record, a piece of technical documentation. I can imagine the photographer, setting up their camera in the factory, trying to get the best angle on this huge, functional sculpture. What was it like to construct such a thing? To be part of building this machine that would process leaves into tea? I find myself wondering about the relationship between the human and the mechanical, between the organic leaves and the hard metal that processes them. I think about the invisible hands that shape our world, the ones that operate in the background, and this photograph feels like a glimpse into that world.