Fort Peck Dam, Montana 1936

Margaret Bourke-White created this photograph of Fort Peck Dam in Montana, and you know, I can’t help but think of all that concrete and steel rising up out of the earth. Imagine Bourke-White, positioning herself just so, waiting for the light to catch those massive forms. The way she’s framed the shot, it's almost like the dam is a modern-day ziggurat, some ancient monument to industry and progress. I think of all the sweat and labor that went into building this thing. And the scale! Look how small those figures at the base appear, dwarfed by the immensity of the dam. It's a powerful statement about human ambition, about our desire to tame nature and leave our mark on the landscape. You can feel the weight of the structure. It makes me think about other artists who were drawn to industrial subjects, like Charles Sheeler, and how they found beauty in the stark geometry of factories and machinery. It’s this ongoing conversation across time, this passing of the baton from one creative mind to the next.