Het drogen van tabaksbladeren 1900 - 1935

Neville Keasberry captured this photograph, "Het drogen van tabaksbladeren," of tobacco leaves, we don't know exactly when or where. The image offers a glimpse into the colonial economies of the Dutch East Indies, present-day Indonesia. In what ways can we understand these acts of photographing as an exercise of colonial power? It captures local laborers involved in the cultivation of tobacco, a crop that fueled global trade and colonial wealth. The repetitive, back-breaking labor of drying tobacco leaves becomes visually apparent. There is a deep contrast between the lives of those who profited from the trade and those who toiled in the fields. This image invites reflection on the human cost of colonial enterprises. What do we make of the racialized and gendered divisions of labor in colonial contexts? It subtly speaks to the exploitation and endurance of these workers, whose identities and stories were often overshadowed by the larger narrative of colonial success.