From the water, you see what the factory was really about. The massive scale. The dominance over the waterfront. The industrial logic that placed manufacturing on harbors where ships could dock directly, offloading thousands of tons of palm oil and coconut oil and animal fats that would become soap.

This is the view sailors saw for decades—the Procter & Gamble plant looming over Baltimore Harbor, one link in a global supply chain stretching from Philippine coconut groves to American bathrooms. By 1999, that system had become obsolete. Containerized shipping, interstate trucking, and environmental regulations had transformed industrial geography. The waterfront location that once made economic sense now required expensive cleanup before anything new could happen.

Masumi photographed from the harbor perspective—the view from boats, the angle that emphasized the facility’s relationship to the water that gave it purpose. Her panorama captures the complex at the moment of transition, still recognizable as industrial infrastructure but already destined to become something else entirely.

This is one of three commissions documenting the P&G conversion. Where the Blue Kettle Room captures interior industrial space and the Tanks focus on storage infrastructure, the Boat View documents context—how this factory sat within Baltimore’s maritime landscape, commanding a section of waterfront that it would soon surrender to residential lofts and office space.