Fabriek Tjebongan 1886

Kassian Céphas's photograph captures the Tjebongan factory, presenting a stark, linear structure that dominates the landscape. The factory is crowned with a chimney, its verticality a potent symbol of industrial progress and colonial ambition. The chimney evokes ancient obelisks—symbols of power and connection to the divine—here repurposed for the modern age. Yet, the transformation is unsettling. What once represented spiritual aspiration is now a marker of industrial imposition, its form echoing across time but charged with a different, more earthly power. This imagery touches on collective anxieties about progress and cultural displacement, engaging viewers with a deep, subconscious awareness of the cyclical and often disruptive nature of historical change. The factory, therefore, becomes a stage for this timeless drama.