The storm 2014

Editor: This is "The Storm," a photograph taken by Alfred Freddy Krupa in 2014. It’s monochrome, and immediately striking, with the strong vertical of what looks like a smokestack juxtaposed against the brewing storm clouds. What draws your attention in this piece? Curator: Immediately, it’s the industrial processes versus natural phenomena. Look at how the photographer positions that stack – a product of human labor and manufacturing – right in the path of this powerful weather system. What materials are being burned? What toxins are going into that sky? Editor: That’s a very different way of seeing it than I did. I was focused on the aesthetic contrast. Curator: The aesthetic *is* compelling, precisely because of what it obscures and reveals. The high contrast emphasizes a narrative about resource extraction. This photograph makes us confront what we consume and the environmental costs embedded in our everyday lives. Look at the base of the chimney - what materials do you think fuel the factory. Editor: I see what you mean. It’s not just a landscape, but a commentary. How does its photographic medium influence your reading of the art. Curator: The photography lends it a certain level of 'realness'. A photo, especially in monochrome, implies documentation. It suggests a direct visual line to this scene. Which adds power to the social critique that questions the nature of progress itself. Editor: That’s given me so much to think about – the layers of meaning, not just in the image, but in the act of creating it. I appreciate your analysis! Curator: Likewise! Seeing art as the product of human and industrial activities adds to the art-historical conversation.