Bananenbomen 1900 - 1910

Editor: This print, simply titled “Bananenbomen,” placing us squarely in a banana grove sometime between 1900 and 1910. It appears to be a photograph, likely by C. Kersten & Co. I'm struck by the contrast, or perhaps lack thereof. The entire scene seems to melt into shades of gray, save for the human figures. What is your perspective? Curator: It’s intriguing, isn't it? This photograph pulls me in two directions. On the one hand, it feels incredibly documentarian—almost anthropological. It speaks to a time of exploration, maybe even exploitation. But then, the composition fights back. The repetitive shapes of those enormous leaves, the soft greyscale… it's oddly dreamlike. Almost as if the camera is attempting to tame a wild reality with an artistic embrace. Doesn't that lack of color drain away the implied vibrancy of such a setting? Editor: I see what you mean about the taming effect. So much latent energy, rendered in such a...reserved palette. Does this lend the people an aspect of colonialism? Curator: Precisely. Do you note their placement within the photograph? Positioned within this verdant setting, amidst its fruits, what might the image tell us? Editor: Perhaps it depicts Man claiming domain over nature? Curator: And could there be another interpretation? Are the human subjects themselves being absorbed, overshadowed by this overwhelming banana grove? Or maybe, they are simply part of the scene. Editor: That’s a cool flip. They do seem dwarfed by the banana trees. I initially saw this as a simple record, but now it’s whispering of larger power dynamics. Curator: These old photos can be more opinionated than they appear. Look closely enough and they become wonderfully slippery texts, each visitor seeing them slightly different than we might have expected.