Sleepboot 'Mercury' van de Tanjong Pagar Dock Co. Ltd. in Singapore before 1905

This photographic print shows the Sleepboot 'Mercury' made by G.R. Lambert & Co., though the exact date is unknown. I love how the monochrome palette focuses our attention on the texture and form. The water, almost a blank canvas, is so still, as if time stopped for this vessel. The boat itself is a study in balance, its form cutting through the water so the eye travels from the prow to the stern almost without noticing the central part of the image. The negative space, the sky, emphasizes the industrial, the ship itself becomes a heavy, imposing form. The distant land provides a whisper of the organic that serves to emphasize the overall effect. It reminds me of some of the early modernist photographers, maybe someone like Alfred Stieglitz who made very similar images to this. It all comes back to the way artists are always in conversation across time. Isn't that great?