[Entrance to ADA Cheese Factory in Cologne-Rodenkirchen]

Werner Mantz

1929 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Architectural photographer Werner Mantz trained a camera on the storefronts and sidewalks of his native Cologne, adapting modernist techniques to a changing local landscape. Though he worked exclusively on commission, Mantz elevated his most mundane corporate jobs to formalist studies in shadow and line. To wit, this refined photograph pictures a factory where molten processed cheese was mixed and pressed into tubes. Inspired, perhaps, by that combinatory method, Mantz made his print from three different negatives, reconstructing the site’s entryway to enliven its design. His handiwork is visible in the sign overhead, where the building’s cornice overlaps unnaturally with the iron letterforms. Whether a simple oversight or a sly wink from the darkroom, this clue finds Mantz reimagining the role of a photographer for hire.

Artist

Werner Mantz

Date

1929

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987