Industrial landscape
Photography emerged at nearly the same time as and, to some extent, was born out of the large-scale industrialisation in the early 19th century. Yet it is not quite possible to apply to photography Andre Bazin's phrase about the cinema of the time: "an art as well as an industry".
Although in photography the tool grew out of technological innovation and was put to commercial and industrial use, the person behind the camera was more often considered a "craftsman", even if he might have been head of a studio. Industrial landscapes - and a focus on the term "landscapes" is indeed correct - developed quite naturally as photographic subjects of the time began to mirror a growing fascination with the power of production and progress, which were, in turn, responsible for the rise of photography.
These urban depictions paradoxically derive much of their impact from their view of "the factory." Curls of billowing, evanescent, shifting smoke produced unique, fleeting images set against industrial architecture that had little interest other than its modernity.
At its beginning, industrial landscapes were thus just a matter of smoke...
This modernity, where forms blend with the present, became gradually more powerful as matter (or steel) replaced smoke Buildings, bridges, tunnels and other engineering structures awakened a growing curiosity and became the main subjects of the works of avant-garde photographers. The transporter bridge in Marseille, a filigree of metal with an original system that made it possible to transport products and foodstuffs from the port to the city, soon became an object of fascination for Weston, Moholy-Nagy, Krull, Bovis and many others.
Industrialization is said to be the daughter of energy, which provides the necessary power. German and American documentary photographers (Renger-Patzsch and Evans, respectively) gave the genuine industrial form its aesthetic legitimacy. This was, obviously, the main objective of Berndt and Hilla Becher's work throughout the 60's to the 80's.
According to Bertolt Brecht, "a photo of a Krupp factory tells nothing of the social and working conditions in a Krupp factory." The era of fascination was coming to a close. The city of Metropolis, had gone beyond our control and was turning into Moloch, threatening to devour mankind. Let us not forget that planning, rationality, regimentation, enhanced productivity and discipline were the watchwords of the concentration camps. The sinister gates of Dachau are also an industrial landscape.
