Untitled (four men loading shoe company boxes onto fork lift) 1945 - 1955

Curator: This photograph by Martin Schweig shows four men loading boxes from a shoe company onto a forklift. The date is unknown. Editor: The high contrast gives it an almost dreamlike quality. The repetition of the boxes suggests the monotony of labor, and the figures seem almost spectral. Curator: There's a real tension between the individual and the collective, wouldn't you agree? Each man is performing his task, yet they're all participating in the same system of production and distribution. Editor: Absolutely. And consider what it means to move shoes—objects of necessity and desire—in such vast quantities. It speaks volumes about consumer culture and its impact on labor. Curator: The photo reveals that labor is essential to a society. It makes me think of old symbols that glorify labor and trade. Editor: It also exposes the precarity inherent in that labor. I'm left pondering the implications of such work on the well-being of the men themselves. Curator: This image shows us labor as an integral part of society. Editor: And it invites us to consider its costs and its connections to consumption.