Chicago Steel Mills c. 1938

This is 'Chicago Steel Mills' by William Sharp, printed as an etching. I’m thinking about the process, the labour that goes into producing an image like this. Sharp had to have been methodical, building tone through tiny marks, slowly articulating the scene. It’s a far cry from today’s digital printing. I imagine Sharp sketching the mills, then translating that sketch onto a copper plate coated with wax. I see him carefully scratching away the wax to expose the metal, then submerging the plate in acid, burning the lines into the surface. The workers below are stooped, anonymous. Were they aware they might be etched into permanence? I wonder if Sharp knew any of them. These scenes of industry and labour are an important subject in art, a conversation begun long ago and that continues to this day, a legacy of observation and inquiry. What does it mean to capture a moment, a mood, an emotion? That’s what all artists try to figure out, again and again.