Watervoorziening op Padang Halaban, 1937 Possibly 1937

Here's Watervoorziening op Padang Halaban, a photograph made in 1937 by Shibaya. It’s so interesting to think about what Shibaya was thinking while taking this photo. It makes me think about the need to categorize and the human urge to make sense of the world. He's got the palm trees, like, captured, tamed, controlled. The light is beautifully atmospheric, filtering through the trees. This work reminds me of other photographers who explore pattern, repetition, and seriality as a way of understanding our relationship to landscape and the natural world. It's an ongoing conversation that artists have across time, inspiring each other's creativity. The photo invites us to think about the artist's process. How do artists learn to see? And how do they then translate that vision into art?