Goenoengsari 1931 - 1934

This is a small black and white photograph by Atelier Kurkdjian entitled "Goenoengsari". It pictures a large interior space, likely a factory, where industrial machines sit in a large room. The photograph looks to have been carefully arranged, giving an impression of clarity and almost scientific objectivity. It is striking how the industrial forms are captured with a delicacy more akin to a still-life. My eye is drawn to the man standing in the middle distance; he is blurred, which makes him appear ghostlike. There's a real contrast between the solidity of the machines and the impermanence of human presence. The machines are captured with an almost loving gaze, whilst the man seems to melt into his environment. Perhaps this contrast speaks to the changing role of the human within an increasingly industrialised world. It puts me in mind of the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, whose photographs of industrial buildings have a similarly dispassionate, yet deeply engaging quality. Ultimately, it leaves me with a sense of the uncanny.