Plating the Hull 1918

Carl Albert Walters made this print called 'Plating the Hull' using stone, sometime around 1918. It's like a glimpse into another world, isn't it? I imagine him, maybe a bit grimy, his brow furrowed in concentration, coaxing this image out of the stone, line by careful line. Look at the density of marks, the way the image emerges from the darkness. The dark ink creates a scene full of industry and labor, a site of great collaborative human endeavor. What was Walters thinking as he worked? Was he struck by the sheer scale of the ship, or maybe the collective effort of the workers swarming all over it? It reminds me a little of Piranesi's architectural fantasies, full of scaffolding. Each artist, each printmaker, adding their voice to a conversation, a collective imagining of our world.