Like Albert Renger-Patzsch and August Sander, Else Thalemann believed beauty was inherent both in nature and in human constructions. She chose to document commonplace subjects like locomotives, which were part of the industry in Germany's Ruhr region. Thalemann's cropped composition of the powerful wheels of a steam engine challenged 1920s thinking about suitable subject matter, forcefully presenting the notion of beauty in everyday things.
