Lokomotieven c. 1900s - 1910s

This photograph called 'Lokomotieven' was made sometime in the past with an unknown process by an anonymous artist. The sepia tones really set the scene, don't they? It makes me think about process, how things are built, piece by piece, from the ground up, like making a painting, or building a train. What strikes me most is the texture in the smoke billowing from the trains. It's captured so well, you can almost feel the heat and smell the coal. Then, your eye is drawn to the figures who are standing with an air of quiet authority, or maybe it's just that everyone knew how to pose for a camera in those days! It's really interesting to see the juxtaposition of the raw, mechanical power of the trains against the calm, almost painterly background. Think about someone like Charles Sheeler, his Precisionist paintings, or even some of the more documentary work of Walker Evans, that same sense of capturing a moment in time, but with a real eye for the abstract qualities of the image.