/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/4e/86/4e8606ac-511d-476b-9e1c-a48dc76f76a4/beginning_stages_of_production_of_artist_filippo_tincolini_sculpture_at_robotor_view_6_of_7-1_copy.jpg)
The British-born, New York-based photographer Caleb Stein has long been fascinated with that moment of discovery, which he identifies as “the point where the suggestion of a shape of a figure begins to emerge from what is still a discernible block of marble.” Earlier this year, Stein learned that an industrial area outside Carrara was home to a group of up-and-coming marble sculptors—powerful, automated robots belonging to a company called Litix (formerly Robotor). Stein, whose photographs often highlight the sculptural nature of the human body, traveled to Carrara to document the process of a single sculpture’s creation by a robot from beginning to end, the subject of these accompanying photographs. “I was interested in making intimate ‘portraits’ of the robots at work,” he said. “I wanted to extend tenderness and sensuality to the process, just as I would when photographing a person.”
