Bouw van droogschuren en de woning van de assistent op Sumatra c. 1900 - 1915

This photograph, ‘Bouw van droogschuren en de woning van de assistent op Sumatra’ by Carl J. Kleingrothe, captures a moment in time, a place being reshaped and rebuilt. I look at this monochrome image and I imagine the artist setting up his camera, a heavy, cumbersome thing back then, to capture this scene. The image presents a construction site in Sumatra, with workers busy building drying sheds and a dwelling. I wonder what Kleingrothe was thinking as he framed this shot. Was he interested in the colonial project? The labour? The new architectural forms emerging in this landscape? The workers in the image remind me of brushstrokes, each figure contributing to the broader composition. And those sheds and the dwelling under construction—they are like forms emerging on a canvas, through trial and error. It makes me think about how we build not just structures, but also narratives and ways of seeing the world. Just like in painting, every choice, every mark, every detail shapes the story.