Locomotief die voorzien wordt van water op onbekende locatie in de Verenigde Staten: 1936

Wouter Cool made this photograph of a locomotive being filled with water somewhere in the United States, but we don't know when exactly. It is a modest-sized, monochrome print, a material record of a scene we can now only imagine. It makes you think about how the photograph captures a very particular moment in time. The men standing around the train, like figures in a Renaissance painting, each seem to be caught in their own thoughts. The light is evenly distributed, which adds to the static, almost staged feel. But it’s the very texture of the photograph, its surface, that conveys a sense of history. The sepia tones and the slight graininess tell a story of a bygone era. You can almost smell the coal and feel the heat of the engine. Think about the work of Walker Evans, in the way that he captured scenes of American life with such quiet dignity and directness, not as dissimilar to Cool. And that's what art does, it keeps the conversation going, connecting us across time and space.