Pagina 25 van fotoboek van de Algemeene Vereeniging van Rubberplanters ter Oostkust van Sumatra (A.V.R.O.S.) c. 1924 - 1925

This photograph, "Pagina 25," was part of a photo album by J.W. Meyster, capturing images for the rubber planters association in Sumatra. It has a very classical composition, the kind you see a lot in early photography. The tonal range is very limited, a subtle array of browns and greys and the surface quality has this hazy feel that gives it a dreamlike quality. Looking closely at the mass of figures clustered at the centre, it’s hard to discern any real individuality. Are they workers, scientists or something else entirely? The picture seems very concerned with documentation, but in a way that obscures and conceals as much as it reveals. It reminds me of some of Gerhard Richter's photographic paintings, these attempts to evoke memory through blurring and smudging. Maybe art is always just a negotiation between clarity and ambiguity, pushing and pulling in opposite directions.