Gezicht op de plek bij Colenso waar Frederick Sleigh Roberts dodelijk verwond raakte c. 1901

This stereo photograph, made by Underwood & Underwood shows the place where Frederick Sleigh Roberts was fatally wounded. It’s a landscape of muted browns and beiges, a palette that speaks of earth and dust. The scene feels immediate, as if the photographer just set up their equipment to record the space. This straightforwardness reminds me of the work of the Bechers; it’s as though the information, and the making of the thing, are the most important things. There is a stream running through the scene. It leads the eye into the background and suggests a narrative, a journey or path. It divides the scene, a symbol of the divides and conflicts rooted in the ground it runs through. This image, in its way, is a memorial, and invites us to reflect on memory, history and place. Like all good art, it gives us space to think.