Fabrieksgebouw met schoorsteenpijp te Sereda in Rusland 1903 - 1904

This photograph of a factory with a chimney in Sereda, Russia, was made by Joseph Cheetham. I find the photograph to have an aged sepia tone, that can be seen as the colors of memory. It feels like the photo has been sitting in a box of old things for a long, long time, and there is a haze over the image which obscures details. The physical texture of the photograph— the paper, its slight imperfections, and the way light reflects off it—enhances the emotional impact, almost like a physical manifestation of nostalgia, and something about that makes me want to reach out and touch it. I am particularly drawn to the way the tall chimney dominates the scene, a lone vertical mark that contrasts against the horizontal building. This emphasis reminds me of Bernd and Hilla Becher's photographs of industrial structures; maybe Cheetham was trying to make a similar point about the stark functionalism of industrial architecture in its time. The artwork serves as a reminder that art is always in conversation with what came before.