Whether photographing the steps of an amphitheatre or the petals of a flower, Imogen Cunningham often captured formal repetitions observed in the world around her. This view of a dozen ventilators extending from the roof of the Fageol Motors Company factory was taken near the corner of 106th Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard in her hometown of Oakland, California. The company produced trucks, farm tractors, and a bus model dubbed the ‘Safety Coach.' By the t.mes Cunningham made this image in 1934, the company had filed for bankruptcy after the Crash of 1929, gone into receivership, and been reorganized as Fageol Truck and Coach before it was subsequently acquired by Peterbilt in 1938.

Cunningham’s composition presents the ventilators as monumental forms stretching into the clear sky. Its intricate linear elements may have persuaded her to document this particular industrial site: the grooves of the corrugated roof, the metal bars connecting the ventilators to one another, and the subtle grid on the building exterior form layer upon layer of angular components that contrast the bulbous, rounded ventilators.

Architectural subjects are rare within Cunningham's oeuvre. Prints of this image are in the collects ions of the New Orleans Museum of Art (83.59.85) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.