Bezoek aan de leprozerie Pelantoengan 1931 - 1935

Otto Hisgen captured this image of a visit to the Pelantoengan leper colony. The photograph, in shades of sepia, feels both distant and intimate, like a memory trying to surface. The subjects, mostly dressed in white, are stark against the dark foliage. They're not quite a crowd, more like individual figures, each touched by the light in their own way. There's a tension here, a push and pull between observation and participation, which reminds me a bit of some of the group scenes you find in someone like Degas. Look at the way Hisgen uses light to create texture. The dappled shadows on the building, the way the light catches the folds of clothing, there's a real material quality to it, even in monochrome. It's like he's inviting us to feel the humidity of the air, the roughness of the path. Like a lot of photography from this period, the image quality is a little soft, but it lends the picture an atmospheric quality, as though it is veiled in a layer of gauze. It's a reminder that art is always a conversation between the artist, the subject, and the viewer.