Oever met gebouw op palen in Nederlands-Indië c. 1920 - 1930

This photograph of a bank with a building on stilts in the Dutch East Indies was captured by Klaas Kleiterp sometime between 1892 and 1943. I imagine Kleiterp standing there, feeling the heat, squinting to get the light just right to capture this scene. Think about the light here, it’s almost as if everything is bleached out and the only thing he can hold on to are the forms of the trees and the building in the distance. It’s not always clear why an artist chooses one shot over another. Perhaps Kleiterp wanted to capture the stillness, the sense of timelessness in this place. The building standing on stilts is such a fragile human thing in contrast to the height of the palm trees. It’s the kind of contrast many artists have tried to capture, and one that Kleiterp might have been thinking about as he framed the image. It makes me want to be there, and to take a photograph of my own.