Chefs Installatie / Fabrikaat. 1931 - 1934

Curator: Right, let’s consider "Chefs Installatie / Fabrikaat," a gelatin silver print by Atelier Kurkdjian, dated between 1931 and 1934. It depicts a group of men in what appears to be a professional setting. Editor: Immediately, I'm struck by the sheer...office-ness of it all. It’s almost oppressive, but with a hint of aspiration. Everyone's in their white shirts, looking seriously at whatever's on the desk. Feels very Art Deco bureaucratic dream, or maybe a cautionary tale. Curator: Indeed. The image evokes the period’s fascination with efficiency and the white-collar workforce. Note the architecture, the repetitive windows, and the implied hierarchy in their poses. It’s a carefully constructed image about control and expertise. The clean, white clothing can also be read as symbols of modernity. Editor: They all seem to be orbiting around that central desk. Are they about to discover the solution to the world's problems or maybe just the perfect stapler configuration? There’s something so theatrical, like a scene from a play where the fate of something important is decided in a back room. Curator: The "chefs," as the title suggests, are perhaps not literal chefs, but "chiefs" or heads of something important. We see here the constructed image of power within an emerging corporate landscape. It's intriguing how the image walks the line between capturing reality and staging a vision. Editor: Yes, exactly! There's a palpable sense of ambition mixed with the weight of responsibility. You know, sometimes you just look at photos like these and feel lucky to live now, but other times you’re left pondering about all the work and ideas these men had brewing. You wonder, what were they making? Curator: Exactly, its archival quality allows us to examine shifting roles, responsibilities, and power dynamics as seen from nearly a century past. Editor: For me, I just hope it wasn't stapler configuration. The world needs bigger dreams than that.