Huizen aan de Tondano te Manado 1860 - 1880

"Huizen aan de Tondano te Manado" is a photograph by Woodbury & Page. It captures houses along the Tondano River in Manado. During the era this photograph was taken, Woodbury & Page, like many European photographers in Southeast Asia, contributed to a visual record that often reinforced colonial perspectives. They helped shape Western perceptions of the region. The photograph invites us to consider how images of colonized lands were used to create narratives about both the exoticism and the subjugation of non-Western cultures. What does it mean to frame a landscape and its inhabitants in this way? Whose stories are told, and whose are left out? The placid surface of the river belies the complex social and political currents of the time. This photograph acts as a mirror, reflecting back not only the physical scene, but also the power dynamics inherent in the act of seeing and recording.