Mannen en vrouwen bezig met persen en dichtnaaien van pakken tabak in een schuur op Sumatra c. 1900 - 1915

Carl J. Kleingrothe made this photograph, of men and women pressing and sewing packages of tobacco in a warehouse in Sumatra, at an unknown date. There’s a muted palette at play here, an exercise in shades of grey, punctuated by the bright white uniforms of the supervisors. It makes me think about the photographic process as a kind of alchemy: how the artist coaxes an image out of light and shadow, transforming reality into something else entirely. Look at the geometry of the building, its structural elements exposed, a kind of cage containing human activity. The composition is fascinating. Our eyes move from the lower left, up and back, through the grid of beams and trusses, coming to rest on the figures standing upright in their clean white suits. It makes me wonder if someone like Bernd and Hilla Becher saw this work. There is a similar sensibility, a deadpan photographic inventory of industrial architecture and labour. But ultimately, what interests me most is how this photograph isn't just documenting a scene, but framing a perspective.