Groep contractarbeiders tijdens hun pauze 1900 - 1935

Curator: This gelatin-silver print, taken between 1900 and 1935 by Neville Keasberry, is titled "Groep contractarbeiders tijdens hun pauze," which translates to "Group of Contract Laborers During Their Break." What strikes you first? Editor: An unsettling stillness, almost a posed formality, during what’s meant to be their down time. And it is a genre painting, not merely a candid snapshot. I think someone definitely had to organize the laborers here. Curator: Indeed. The image itself, a stereo photograph, would have been consumed as exotic documentation but think of the exploitation inherent in that viewing process. How different the laborers lived experience on their break was versus how these Western views wanted to depict it. Editor: You see that also, I almost feel their weariness radiating through this old silver print. It’s somber and muted but it's not necessarily sadness, it feels more like just quiet endurance. You are looking straight into an endless life of working like that, it is like looking in a dark, opaque, cold surface. Curator: Let’s not romanticize hardship, though. These "contract laborers" were bound by agreements that benefited plantation owners, fostering global flows of capital at immense human cost. The print as artifact reflects that asymmetry. Editor: It is a harsh observation but still visually compelling, this tableau of resilience. The baskets and tools, these workers clothes, all elements involved are simple, there are no adornments, nothing else around just dirt. A break for the men is the same as working like always, nothing is changed. What does the break accomplish if is visually the same? Curator: Consider the consumption of these images – destined for stereoscopes in Europe perhaps – distant consumers detached from this grueling reality in Malang, Java. The material existence of the image is the means of separating viewers from those represented within. Editor: Absolutely! I feel that disconnection palpably. The photo lets me peek, but I can’t touch or change the story unfolding within it. Thanks to this chat, the image got a complete different take for me. Curator: Agreed. Analyzing art beyond just aesthetics opens us to power dynamics, class consciousness, and historical production. And that for me is a job well done!