Linker gedeelte van een panoramafoto met de Bromo en omgeving, Java, voormalig Nederlands-Indië 1903 - 1912

This is Onnes Kurkdjian’s black and white photograph of Java, from what was then the Dutch East Indies. The magic of the shot really comes from how the light interacts with the landscape. It's all about process—how the film captures light, how the chemicals react, and how the image slowly emerges in the darkroom. Look at the way the clouds are rendered, almost like a sea, obscuring the land with soft gradations. You can sense the physicality of the fog as it clings to the slopes of the Bromo. Notice how the dark, craggy textures of the volcano contrast with the ethereal quality of the clouds. That interplay gives the image a real sense of depth, like you could fall into the mist. This recalls the work of 19th-century landscape painters like Caspar David Friedrich, who also sought to capture the sublime in nature. Art is always a conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas, where artists borrow, steal, and transform what came before. Ultimately, it's about embracing the ambiguity and finding new ways of seeing the world.