Binderij van de Deli Courant Possibly 1908 - 1910

Curator: I am intrigued by the anonymous photograph titled "Binderij van de Deli Courant," likely taken between 1908 and 1910. It's a gelatin-silver print, placing it within an era of significant change in photographic processes. What do you make of this tableau? Editor: There’s a stillness here, despite the activity. Almost sepia-toned, it breathes a hushed, industrious air, making me feel both connected and utterly distant from whatever's being so meticulously bound. It's like peering into a past life through a clouded window. Curator: Considering it documents a bookbinding workshop of the Deli Courant, a newspaper in Sumatra, the image operates beyond the aesthetics of the Dutch Golden Age it somewhat echoes in composition. Think of the materiality here: paper, ink, light, all transformed into something that communicates, that circulates news and ideas. The act of physically binding those thoughts is central. Editor: The human labor really gets me thinking – the arrangement is regimented but everyone's touching paper. What does that action impart? So much of art history removes human labor from its discussions, but here, labor *is* the photograph. The gelatin-silver development emphasizes tones. Curator: Yes! It transforms raw material, experience, thought into this document and these objects. We also see, past what appears to be portraiture or Dutch Golden Age aesthetics, an intriguing colonial story. The scene whispers about global exchanges of raw goods, production, and of course, dissemination of information…who has access, who doesn't? Who labors? It is anonymous—an incredible mystery that makes you question who captured this fleeting image in time. Editor: And the setting, too – light coming in through those huge windows and what are obviously bare necessities and some ornamentation. This is not neutral—this is an operational factory *and* something staged, for us and, I imagine, also to reinforce control of bodies at work. That focus adds tension and maybe even beauty into this depiction of industry! Curator: Perhaps its anonymity is precisely its power. It’s open to interpretations, a portal into considering how production, especially knowledge production, has evolved - or sadly hasn’t. A perfect collision of method, art and substance... Editor: Right! I step back and can think of where and who makes news today, how the digital can feel even less touched by humanity...and shivers dance on my skin. It feels great that we are spending a moment to contemplate on process—what this image might still make of us.