Stokankers 1942

Curator: Okay, so here we have "Stokankers," a gelatin-silver print, taken in 1942. What catches your eye? Editor: Well, initially, it’s the sheer scale! These anchors feel like relics from some mythological sea monster battle. There’s also an almost unsettling stillness to the photograph; a quiet monumentality. Curator: Yes, the picture captures cast steel stock anchors made by Braat in Soerabaia, which I believe is Surabaya today, during the height of World War II. It is currently held at the Rijksmuseum. These things weighed 3300 kilograms each, that must've been impressive at the time. I think it reflects how resources were marshaled in times of total war. Editor: It certainly speaks to the industrial might—or perhaps the intended might—of the era. Looking at the solitary figure standing beside them, they become metaphors for human ambition and control… or perhaps the futility of it all in the face of overwhelming forces, intended or not. The factory looks busy, not like some serene temple. Curator: Absolutely. The photo’s stark realism, almost documentary style, emphasizes this feeling. The sharp lines of the metal, the functional design stripped bare, gives a palpable sense of both strength and vulnerability. Editor: Do you get a feeling of disquiet? These forms appear both functional and abstract; maybe that juxtaposition unsettles me. But it's probably me reading modern feeling into this picture from the early 1940s, when it wasn't so clear that modernity had any flaws. Curator: Perhaps you're more receptive to it as someone working in art, rather than history. To me it feels very immediate as both a record and an echo from a troubled era, now from almost a hundred years in the past. Editor: Perhaps... and it really brings an aura of that history into this moment, even in its two dimensional representation, as we gaze on in almost awe at its simple but massive form and history. Curator: It’s funny, the weight that even photographs can hold.