Viaduct des Fades in aanbouw over de Sioule in de Auvergne 1904

This sepia photograph by Delizy shows the Viaduct des Fades in Auvergne as it was being constructed. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when this photo was taken, but the warm tones and careful composition give it a timeless quality, a real sense of history in the making. The thing that grabs me is the contrast between the raw, rocky landscape and the smooth, geometric lines of the viaduct’s pillars. It's like Delizy is showing us a before and after, the wildness of nature being tamed by human ingenuity. Look at the way the light catches those pillars; they almost seem to glow. There’s a real dialogue here between the organic and the architectural, a tension that makes you think about progress, and change, and what we leave behind. It puts me in mind of some of the photos by Bernd and Hilla Becher of industrial structures, or the early photography of Ed Ruscha.