Wood Carver in a Furniture Factory c. 1920s

This photograph by Lewis Hine captures a wood carver at work, somewhere in a furniture factory. The light and shadow play across the man's face, etched with time and concentration as he leans into his craft. I imagine Hine watching him, seeing the dance between hand and wood. It is a ballet of sorts: the heft of the mallet, the delicate curve emerging from the block. The artist's intent is held in the tension between his hands, shaping and refining. You can almost feel the grit of the wood, the thud of the mallet, the slow reveal of form. In the end, art making is an exchange. It is a conversation between bodies, materials, and ideas—a back-and-forth that connects us across time and space. Hine documents the man's process, the man follows the path within the material, and we, in turn, are invited to follow the story.