Batavia - Gang Secretarie van het Koningsplein uit 1863 - 1866

This albumen print of Batavia, now Jakarta, was made by the studio of Woodbury & Page. The albumen process, popular in the 19th century, involved coating paper with egg white and silver nitrate, then exposing it to light through a negative. The resulting sepia tones and soft focus give the image a dreamlike quality, yet it captures a very real scene of colonial life. Note how the wide avenue and manicured lawns speak to a desire for control and order, imposed on the tropical landscape. The architecture, too, reflects this colonial ambition, with European-style buildings adapted to the climate. The very act of photography here is significant. It’s a technology brought from Europe, used to document and, in a way, possess the colony. The print itself, a mass-produced object, would have been circulated back home, reinforcing ideas about the exotic ‘other’. So, while the image might seem like a simple snapshot, it’s deeply embedded in the social and political context of its time.