Dorpsgezicht 1863 - 1869

This photograph, taken by Woodbury & Page, shows us a village scene in what was then the Dutch East Indies. The photographic process itself is key here. Light-sensitive chemistry was applied to paper, and then carefully exposed to the world. The resulting image, sepia-toned, has a direct indexical relationship to reality. It presents itself as a straightforward record. But of course, any photograph is also a product of choices: what to include in the frame, and what to leave out. Here, we see native laborers, some carrying heavy loads. Westerners are also present, including one figure posed prominently at the edge of the frame. The whole composition speaks volumes about the colonial context, and the relationship between colonizer and colonized. Photography was used to document and reinforce this unequal power dynamic. Consider the photograph not just as a picture, but as an artifact of that history.