Chinese mijnwerkers poserend voor hun verenigingshuis (kongsihuis) te Soengeiliat c. 1900 - 1920

This old photograph captures a moment in time, and there's a poignancy in the fact we don't know who took it. I imagine this photographer, whoever they were, trying to capture the essence of a community, a group of Chinese miners standing proudly in front of their association house. What was it like to stand there, behind the camera, trying to capture the complexity of lives, labor, and community in a single frame? You can almost feel the weight of history, the untold stories etched into the faces of these men. There is so much in their collective gaze! This image reminds me that every artwork, every photograph, is an act of reaching out, connecting across time and space.