The Assembly Factory In Laura Gilpin's The Awakening

An American photographer, by the name of Laura Gilpin, worked for Boeing from 1942 to 1944 photographing aircrafts (“Laura Gilpin” Wikipedia). In one of the photographs that Gilpin took (Figure 1), during her time working for Boeing, she shares an image overlooking part of the aircraft assembly factory. This black and white photograph of the assembly factory shows multiple rows, and columns of aircraft wings ready to be put together. The position, and angle from which the photograph was taken gives the illusion that the factory stretches far into the horizon. Another element of the photo is the employees that appear to be dwarfed by the wings, and the factory space they are working in. Also you can tell the factory is very organized, and clean. You can tell because the well-lit factory allows the whites, and light greys to shine, and they are emphasized by the contrasting darks. This photograph shows how clean, well organized, and production efficient this American assembly factory is.

The title of the photograph is simply Wing assembly, Boeing, Wichita, Kansas, and the timeframe that it was taken is 1942-1944 when Gilpin worked for Boeing. The United States of America fought in World War II, which was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945 (“World War II” Wikipedia). Boeing manufactured aircrafts during the war, and “Boeing Wichita built 44 percent of all U.S. primary trainers for the Army and Navy, while 13 other manufacturers produced the rest” (Chance). With this context the photograph means a lot more since the production of the factory has a very important purpose. Based on these statistics this factory is indeed very production