Meisje in Japans interneringskamp in Makassar na de bevrijding 1945 - 1946

This photograph by Anefo captures a girl in a Japanese internment camp in Makassar, after liberation. The girl is lying on a bed, her arms above her head, her eyes wide. I imagine Anefo seeing the girl, and wanting to capture that particular moment of uncertainty. He must have felt compelled to tell the story he found in front of him. Photography can be like that, an itch to capture the world, a conversation between what you see and what you feel. I wonder what Anefo was thinking at that moment? What did the girl make of him? It's a complex moment, full of suffering, but there’s also a feeling of resilience. Like a dialogue between the past and future. Artists are always talking to each other across time, repurposing the past, playing with it, and pushing it into new shapes. And, like all art, this photograph exists in that space of ambiguity, open for us to keep looking and keep wondering.