Afspuiting Mäabo 1900 - 1906

This is "Afspuiting Mäabo", a small photograph made by Augusta Curiel sometime around the turn of the century. The image feels geological; it's all about layering and excavation, both real and captured. Look at the way the light carves into the hillside. The way the diagonal cut of the water hose mirrors the diagonal slope of the land. It's like the whole scene is being painted with light and water, revealing the raw earth beneath. The sepia tone gives everything a dreamlike quality, a sense of history and memory. It’s about industry and labor, but it's also about transformation and the constant reshaping of the world around us. I see a connection with Carleton Watkins, another landscape photographer of the same era. But where Watkins captured the grandeur of nature, Curiel shows us its vulnerability, its malleability in the face of human intervention. A potent reminder of the ongoing dance between humanity and the environment.