Canecutter in bedrijf 1937 - 1938

Editor: Here we have a gelatin silver print photograph from the late 1930s, titled "Canecutter in Bedrijf," currently held at the Rijksmuseum. It pictures what looks like sugarcane being fed into machinery inside a factory. There is almost a harsh starkness to the industrial process captured here, it feels very factual. What grabs your attention when you look at this work? Curator: Well, isn't it fascinating how this anonymous photograph quietly screams of an era! It’s not just about cutting cane, is it? Those piles of stalks, that cavernous factory, the silent giants of machinery… they evoke a certain melancholic beauty for me, a longing for industry as a monument to human potential while simultaneously echoing concerns about labor and environment that endure even today. Do you see it, too? Editor: I think I do! It almost seems contradictory... that tension between admiring human achievement and feeling uneasy about it. It’s thought-provoking that the artist chose realism as their style. It leaves nothing to the imagination and instead highlights the stark contrast. Curator: Precisely! The choice of realism compels us to grapple with the complexities head-on, rather than getting lost in romanticized ideals. How does the monochrome palette contribute, do you think, to this atmosphere? Does the grayscale contribute to the emotion? Editor: Absolutely! The blacks and whites amplify the industrial grit. If it was colorful it could be misleading, don’t you think? But this image evokes a past age of raw, mechanized industry. Curator: Perhaps you're right! Thank you, it almost feels as if we shared a small moment inside the cogs and wheels of that distant factory. Editor: Absolutely, it really did make you consider the complex realities this factory presented in this period. I had not thought about it like that.