Freesmachine 1919 - 1921

This photograph, "Freesmachine," lives at the Rijksmuseum and was made by an anonymous photographer. It's a complex tangle of gears, wheels, and levers, a machine rendered in shades of sepia. I imagine the photographer moving around this huge factory, trying to capture the essence of industry, of labor. What was it like to be in that space, surrounded by the clamor and the smell of metal? The light in the background creates a sense of depth, almost like a stage set. There is something captivating in the way these various elements are arranged. It’s like the photographer wanted to capture the soul of the machine itself. Ultimately, this is a reminder that every work of art, no matter how mechanical, is touched by human hands, by a human vision.