Bouw van een bedrijfshal 1931 - 1937

Curator: Welcome. This series of photographic prints, titled "Bouw van een bedrijfshal," captures the construction of a factory building between 1931 and 1937. It resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: The stark black and white images, the unadorned angles…it feels very clinical. Almost like an architectural study, emphasizing process over… well, anything else. There's a starkness I find compelling. Curator: Indeed. The images present a modernist aesthetic, fitting with the period's fascination with industry and progress. Consider how the photos are presented together within the album - construction viewed as progress. The city portrayed as something born out of modern industrialism. Editor: I’m intrigued by that relationship. The image's power rests in the exposure of construction, not concealment. It directs us towards the labor and the material transformations. The photograph aestheticizes labor in its early stages – it makes this visible. Curator: Exactly. It’s less about individual artistry, perhaps by an Anonymous photographer. This emphasizes how technology like photography furthered industrialization, shaping public perception. Editor: And how! This shift created entirely new labor categories, but it also mechanized perception! Look at this image and the textures and contrast achieved. There’s certainly still artistic consideration within photography’s use of materials like gelatin silver to represent an object in early formation. Curator: Quite right. The artist may be unnamed but there is great care paid to the image-making and what the photograph should highlight. I consider how this type of art creates an image for institutions by way of imagery - and what the value systems it reflects, and even promotes. Editor: The values of hard labor! These images give off the impression of honest sweat and grit transforming landscapes. One gets a feeling that there’s very little hidden with photographs such as this. Curator: I would agree. Ultimately, “Bouw van een bedrijfshal” freezes a moment in the evolution of both urban development and photographic practice. Editor: For me, the series offers a window into the nuts and bolts, quite literally, of societal transformation during this era. Very potent, once one gets beyond the documentary veneer.