Portret van drie mannen van de Banza te Bogolo 1896

This is a photograph by Franz Thonner, titled "Portrait of three men of the Banza at Bogolo." It is mounted in an album of other photographs. The image’s material presence—its greyscale tonality and subtle gradations of light—is directly related to the photographic process itself, in which light-sensitive chemicals on a paper support are selectively exposed and developed. This method allowed the photographer to capture a scene with unprecedented accuracy, and to reproduce it at will, at the expense of losing detail from the tonal palette. Considered in its historical context, this photograph also speaks to the political and social dynamics of its time. Thonner's photographs were taken during a colonial expedition, and although seemingly objective, they participate in a broader project of observation, documentation, and control. The very act of photographing these men from the Banza people involved specific equipment, a trained photographer, and a set of cultural assumptions that shaped the encounter and its representation. Therefore, to fully understand this photograph, we must consider not only the image itself, but also the labor, technology, and power dynamics that went into its making. Only then can we appreciate its complex relationship to both art and society.