Goudmolen bij de Robinson Mine bij Johannesburg 1901

This unassuming stereograph entitled, 'Goudmolen bij de Robinson Mine bij Johannesburg' was made by Underwood & Underwood. It's not a painting, but it feels like one, somehow. I like that the colours are subdued, as if they've been drained of colour – like the way mining sucks all the goodness out of the earth. It's a double image, this photograph. It could be about doubling, about labour, about the making of industry, the making of something from something else. I wonder what it was like to be there, taking the picture of this… thing? What was the photographer trying to capture? The scale, the process, the sheer… industrialness of the mine? Painters can find inspiration in the most unexpected places. This photograph could be a starting point for a whole series of paintings, each one exploring a different aspect of the scene. That's how painting works, you know. It's an ongoing conversation, an exchange of ideas across time and between artists.