Heerenstraat te Paramaribo 1903 - 1910

Hendrik Doijer made this small, monochromatic photograph of the Heerenstraat in Paramaribo. It has an amazing texture and feels like a painting. I imagine Doijer standing in the street, light meter in hand, waiting for just the right moment. He sees a group of children in light-colored dresses clustered together on the side of the road. What are they looking at? Are they waiting for something, or someone? I feel a sense of warmth looking at it. The artist has used a high vantage point which somehow allows us to enter into the pictorial space, the way the light filters through the tall trees to fall onto the children’s faces and clothes is gorgeous. It makes me think about the many forms of expression that are possible when you allow space for experimentation and new ideas. We see Doijer negotiating a path between representation and abstraction, and ultimately creating an image that is both familiar and deeply strange.