Gezicht op Port-Na-Spania before 1867

John Hudson captured "Gezicht op Port-Na-Spania" with photography, a relatively new medium at the time. This image offers a glimpse into the colonial gaze and its fascination with capturing distant lands. The view of Port of Spain, now the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago, is seen through the lens of 19th-century colonialism. Consider the power dynamics at play: a European artist depicting a Caribbean port, framing it for a European audience. Whose stories are amplified, and whose are silenced? This photograph becomes a document, an archive of a specific moment in time marked by exploration, exploitation, and the imposition of European perspectives. The landscape here becomes a stage upon which the drama of cultural encounter and colonial power plays out. The image raises questions about representation, cultural exchange, and the legacies of colonialism that continue to shape our world today.