Groepsportret en fabrieksterrein 1929 - 1930

This is a vintage photograph, "Groepsportret en fabrieksterrein," made by an anonymous photographer. I can only imagine how the photographer took these photographs. They have an immediacy, a lack of self-consciousness about them, which might make them ‘amateur’ photographs, but that doesn't make them any less compelling. In the top image, there's a group of people gathered, under some kind of makeshift awning with a goat just hanging out, as you do. The photographer might have been thinking about capturing a moment of camaraderie amidst the daily grind. Down below, the factory terrain is raw, and in progress. The image captures the bare bones of industry and land on which it is being built. There's a certain openness to the framing, a sense of discovery, that reminds me of other documentary photographers of the time. It also makes me think about the conversation all artists have with one another, across years, about what is worth preserving.