Lathe, New York, 1923

'During the early 1920s Strand made several still photographs of machines and buildings, the very things that were responsible for much of the crassness and brutality in America. These images, however, bear no moral judgement. Like the X-rays he made while in the army, they reveal an interest in structure and also a desire to know the core of a substance. Presented with an intense, precise, scientific detail and objectivity, they speak of a photographer who was conducting a series of experiments, much as a scientist would, to break through superficial appearances and reveal facts about the essential character of these objects.' (Greenough, Paul Strand: An American Vision, National Gallery of Art, 1990, p. 40).