S.O. Goenoengsari. Gezicht op centrifuges en koeltroggen vanaf filterpersbordes. Juli 1927. 1927

Here's a photograph from July 1927 that depicts centrifuges and cooling troughs as seen from a filter press platform. Looking at this photograph, it's as though the artist - or photographer, in this case - is mapping an industrial site, like a landscape architect would design a garden. The image is a tangle of pipes, tanks, and machinery, yet it's also airy. I wonder what the photographer was thinking when they chose this angle. The light filtering through the skeletal roof seems to soften the hard edges of the factory. It's a beautiful picture of a place of labor. It makes you wonder, what does it mean to represent work in this way? How does it relate to other depictions of factories and industrial spaces by artists like Charles Sheeler or the Bechers? They’re all in conversation with each other, finding ways to see and show the world around them.