Gezicht op de uitmonding van de Oembilienrivier in het Singkarakmeer op Sumatra c. 1900 - 1920

This photograph of the Oembilien River in Sumatra was captured by Christiaan Benjamin Nieuwenhuis. What strikes me first is the way the monochrome palette simplifies the landscape, reducing it to essential forms. The texture of the paper itself becomes part of the experience, adding a tactile dimension to the scene, and I feel as if I could reach out and touch the rough bark of the trees, or feel the cool spray of the river. My eyes are drawn to the movement of the water as it rushes towards the lake in the distance. The flow of the river mimics the way the image pulls you forward and into its depths. Nieuwenhuis reminds me a little of 19th-century landscape painters like Courbet, in that they both revelled in the sheer physicality of the world around them, and found a way of translating that into their art. Ultimately, it invites us to contemplate the complex relationship between humans and nature, and the ways in which we shape and are shaped by the landscapes we inhabit.