Surinaamse Caraïben op een erf in de Saramaccastraat, Paramaribo 1903 - 1910

Hendrik Doijer made this cyanotype, Surinaamse Caraïben op een erf in de Saramaccastraat, Paramaribo, with photography, a process which always feels to me like a strange alchemy. The vivid monochromatic blue you see here suggests an immediacy, a directness, but photography is never quite as objective as it seems. There's always a kind of translation happening. The way the light and shadow play across the buildings, those figures in the yard, everything rendered in this Prussian blue hue, makes me consider the choices Doijer made. Look at the way the details of the faces seem to dissolve in the shadows. It's this that makes it a fascinating image. The use of cyanotype here almost feels like a pre-cursor to artists like Yves Klein who were interested in monochrome. This feels like a jumping-off point, an invitation into this artist's world that’s worth taking seriously. It’s not just about what we see, but about what we feel, and what we start to imagine.