Gezicht op de Grand Coulee Dam, Columbia River, Verenigde Staten 1936

This black and white photograph, by Wouter Cool, captures the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River. The silvery grays remind me that art-making is a process that can reveal the hidden magic in the everyday. In this image, the dam almost disappears into the landscape. Everything is flattened into similar tonal values. Look closely, and you'll see that the physical qualities of the image aren't about bold contrasts. Instead, it's about the subtle interplay of light and shadow, texture and form. The mountains fade into the distance, the river becomes a hazy expanse. Even the industrial structures seem to blend into the natural environment. In the lower half of the frame, construction materials are piled up haphazardly. Look at the contrast between these haphazard piles and the clean lines of the long, low building which abuts them. Cool’s quiet image of monumental construction reminds me of Bernd and Hilla Becher's photographs of industrial structures. Each artist approaches their subject with a similar eye for the understated, the overlooked, and the quietly profound. Art, like life, is full of ambiguity, and it's in those in-between spaces that the real magic happens.