Batavia en rijstvelden 1947 - 1950

This collection of photographs, titled Batavia en rijstvelden, comes to us anonymously, and is a study in contrasts, captured with light and shadow. It’s easy to imagine the photographer’s hands at work in the darkroom, coaxing these scenes to life. There are three scenes depicted: a grand colonial building, a cathedral in the gothic style, and a landscape scene. Each image is like a snapshot of a moment, and the lack of artifice creates a raw, immediate, and honest feeling. In the image depicting rice fields, the texture of the field and the branch in the foreground is rough. There is something about the way these images were captured that feels relevant today, a reminder that art is about process, about seeing, and about feeling. We can think of art history not as a straight line, but more like a tangled web. These photographs, in their own way, speak to the complexities of art, culture, and the human experience.