Locomotieven op spoorwegemplacement Heerlen Possibly 1930 - 1934

This is an arrangement of monochrome photographs, taken by an anonymous artist, of locomotives at Heerlen depot. The image is all about trains, but for me it is also about the process of documenting, collecting, and cataloging. Each locomotive is carefully centered in its own little frame, but the overall composition embraces a kind of organized chaos. The handwritten labels, like little poems, add to the charm. The texture is wonderfully tactile - the rough grain of the photographic paper, the smudges and imperfections. The artist’s hand is present in every aspect of the work, from the composition of the images to the arrangement on the page. And yet the subject is so mechanical, so industrial. There is something touching about this human touch being applied to these giants of the railway. It reminds me of the work of Karl Blossfeldt, the way he captured the beauty of plants with scientific precision but also with an eye for the strange and the uncanny. It’s this intersection of the mechanical and the organic, the rational and the irrational, that makes this piece so compelling.