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

This photograph, taken by Carl J. Kleingrothe, documents the construction of drying sheds and an assistant’s dwelling in Sumatra. It presents an interesting window into a specific moment, a stage in a process. The image is starkly monochrome, the contrast lending a sharp clarity to the scene. The textures become really pronounced, from the rough thatch of the roofs to the dense undergrowth in the foreground. The eye is drawn to the skeletal structure of the buildings, the bare wood and scaffolding creating a kind of linear rhythm against the landscape. There’s a real tension in the contrast between the organic, almost chaotic, natural world and the ordered, geometric forms of the constructed elements. Note the figures scattered throughout. They are tiny against the landscape, but their presence infuses the scene with a sense of scale, of work, of human endeavor. In this way the photograph reminds me a little of Bernd and Hilla Becher's typologies of industrial buildings, but here, there is more of a sense of human intervention. The photograph is a record, but also a narrative, an observation of the ongoing construction of a place.