Volwassen rubberbomen van de onderneming Batang Serangang op Sumatra c. 1900 - 1920

Here is a photo of mature rubber trees, taken by an anonymous photographer in Sumatra. I feel like I'm squinting to see, like on a gray day. The light isn't clear and bright, and the trees have a muted tone. There's something hazy about it. I'm thinking about how much of a collaborative effort any painting, or photograph is. Here, the photographer is collaborating with the weather and the landscape itself. There's something so still about this image. The verticality of the trees is echoed by the verticality of the whole image. If you cropped the image, it would feel different. This orientation gives the image a feeling of quiet. I'm imagining the photographer standing there, trying to capture this quiet mood, but who knows, really? Making art is an ongoing conversation across time, where we keep trying to capture something new.