Olieveld in Signal Hill, Long Beach, Californië met boortorens c. 1945 - 1960

This anonymous image shows an oil field in Signal Hill, Long Beach, California, and it’s made with what seems to be a photographic printing process. The mark-making is all in the capture, the photographer framing this strange collision of nature and industry. The colors are striking. A really blue sky, puffy white clouds, and then the repetitive, insistent verticals of the oil derricks. They seem to have been set down with a limited palette, a thin wash, that allows the white of the paper to show through. Look at the way the details blur, especially in the background. It’s almost as if the scene itself is unsure whether it wants to be there or not. The overall impression is kind of haunting, like a dream of extraction. Think about someone like Bernd and Hilla Becher, who were also interested in industrial landscapes, but with a cooler, more detached eye. This image, though, has a kind of yearning to it, like it's caught between beauty and destruction. Art’s always about seeing double, isn’t it?