Charles Sheeler,
American, 1883–1965, Ford Plant, River Rouge, Stamping
Press, 1927; gelatin silver print. Courtesy the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, The Lane Collection.
Here, a worker oversees a huge machine that
stamps out car fenders. It rises above him like an altar, reflecting
Sheeler’s statement that America’s factories are “our
substitutes for religious expression” and similar sentiments
expressed by President Calvin Coolidge, who proclaimed, “the
man who builds a factory builds a temple, [and] the man who works
there worships there.” |
