Gezicht in een tunnelbuis of -schacht op een onbekende locatie in de Verenigde Staten 1936

This photograph of a tunnel shaft in the USA was made by Wouter Cool sometime in the first half of the twentieth century. Cool's image is all about perspective. The tunnel’s circular structure draws your eye, but it’s the radiating lines, suggestive of depth, that really get you. The black and white palette emphasizes texture. The rough, uneven surfaces inside the tunnel feel tangible, almost gritty. You can imagine the echo in there and feel the isolation. The framing of the photograph, set within what looks like a page from a book, further accentuates its subject. It looks as though the tunnel shaft is emerging from the page. It reminds me of the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, who also documented industrial structures with a similar objective eye. However, Cool’s composition leans towards an almost sublime feeling of the unknown. It's about light and darkness, the seen and unseen. It’s a moment frozen in time, but it’s also an invitation to imagine what lies beyond that circle of light.