railway spirits

Railway spirits.

These are portraits of locomotives, stylized as pagan, shamanic masks.

“Railway spirits. The ancient man, having seen the train, would certainly have placed it in the pantheon of his deities, as one of the most frightening. Since childhood, they have caused mixed feelings: fascination and horror. Similar to iron snakes, with a warlike color, huge, rumbling and emitting a deafening roar. When they rush past, the ground shakes under their feet and the roar makes their ears pop. These creatures and their insane power serve man, move megatons of cargo.
Mythologizing machines, animating them, believing in their power and in the power of technological progress is akin to some new technogenic religion of modern civilization.”

[auto translation]