Bezoek aan de leprozerie Pelantoengan 1931 - 1935

Curator: This gelatin-silver print, "Bezoek aan de leprozerie Pelantoengan," or "Visit to the Pelantoengan Leper Colony," by Otto Hisgen, was created between 1931 and 1935. What stands out to you initially? Editor: It’s the stark formality against an implied human tragedy that strikes me. Everyone is in white uniforms, yet the very subject, a leper colony visit, speaks to immense suffering. The hats and straight posture signal a barrier of privilege. Curator: Absolutely. Looking closer, consider the implications of the gelatin-silver print. It was a mass-reproducible process. How does that inform our understanding when confronting a topic such as a leper colony, normally outside the concerns of those who used or viewed the images? Editor: The repetition grants an uncanny feel to it all. It suggests this event was repeated and maybe not uncommon. And if reproduced, it perhaps signals a wish for acknowledgment. Are they searching for visibility, despite a subject typically concealed? The colonial gaze adds complexity too, given the clear power dynamic. Curator: Indeed. Their presence, their mode of dress, it speaks volumes. And don't overlook the colonial architecture itself and well groomed tropical garden. These are statements about control of resources, land, and people, right? And even perhaps an imposition of aesthetics upon a very dire, perhaps unaesthetic, reality. Editor: The architecture and garden are in jarring contrast with what the colony suggests. Leprosy carried strong cultural and religious symbolism, too—themes of disease, ostracization, purification… these resonate through the picture beyond simply the surface of this formal group. They carry potent stories and historical memory within them. Curator: So we can see that beyond its documentary appearance, the making and distribution of this image involves choices regarding material, labor, and representation that reveal not just a historical moment but the deeper workings of power at play. Editor: Precisely. It makes me want to investigate what each person felt at this moment, if this record can evoke their interior experiences, however mediated. A brief image containing multitudes of possible emotions and layered meanings.