Company M c. 1917

Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt made this print, Company M, using etching - a printmaking technique that is all about controlled corrosion. The process starts with a metal plate, usually copper or zinc, covered with a waxy, acid-resistant ground. Nordfeldt would have drawn his image into this ground with a sharp needle, exposing the metal beneath. Then, the plate is submerged in acid, which bites into the exposed lines, creating grooves. The longer the plate is left in the acid, the deeper the lines become, and the darker they will appear when printed. Ink is then applied to the plate, filling these etched lines. The surface is wiped clean, and the image is transferred to paper under high pressure in a printing press. Look closely and you can see the marks of this patient labor, translated into a snapshot of a column of soldiers, dwarfed by the trees around them. The print is both a documentary record, and an evocation of the deep, regimented labor that defines military life. With his careful technique, Nordfeldt elevates a mundane scene into a statement about collective effort and individual experience.