Photography by Hawks-Terrell c. 1949

Curator: Immediately, a sense of foreboding. The density of the image feels oppressive, all those pipes and towering structures… industrial anxiety rendered in silver gelatin. Editor: Indeed. This is a photographic work by Hawks-Terrell dating back to about 1949. It is part of the Minneapolis Institute of Art's collection and offers a somewhat abstracted perspective on an industrial cityscape. Curator: "Abstracted" is kind. To me, it feels less like an industrial landscape and more like a metallic organism, all gleaming exoskeleton and churning innards. A Leviathan of pipes, perhaps? Editor: I can certainly see how the photograph invokes a sense of the monumental, and the machine-like. Remember, though, that photography at this time, particularly industrial photography, often carried with it connotations of progress, modernity, and even American power. Are we, perhaps, layering our contemporary environmental anxieties onto an earlier symbol? Curator: A fair point, and valid as we observe changes of continuity over time, the piece speaks to different realities for different audiences. Even then, though, the almost surreal level of detail feels deliberately overwhelming, and I feel like this captures a sentiment that the future comes at the cost of today’s wellbeing. Do we celebrate progress blindly? Editor: One might argue that the very composition – the almost overwhelming concentration of forms, lines, and textures – is, in itself, a commentary. There's no room to breathe, no clear focal point, and endless repetition that seems…almost stifling. A maze. Curator: Precisely. It's a physical representation of a psychic burden – the weight of relentless industrial expansion, perhaps, and also speaks of its lasting environmental impacts for those familiar with symbols of industry and its effects. Editor: Ultimately, whatever the original intent, the image persists, resonates and transforms its symbology. It stands, a metal leviathan in sepia tones, leaving us to ponder the echoes of progress. Curator: Indeed, a photograph layered with history, symbolism and the lingering questions of human impact on our planet.