Leprozenkolonie Danaradja: personeel poserend achter een bord Possibly 1922

This photograph of the personnel at Leprozenkolonie Danaradja, taken by an anonymous artist, feels so tender to me. I want to know everything. What was it like to take this image? The sepia tones feel almost like watercolor, like a wash layered on top of a drawing, a drawing of real people. The scratchy marks bring to mind the vulnerability of the people depicted, whose names and stories we don’t know. Did the artist know that they were making a historical document? I imagine the artist wanted to preserve something of their experience, their time, and their connections with these people. Maybe they were thinking about how they could communicate the nuances of the time they spent together. The workers pose with quiet dignity, maybe slightly nervous, and are now forever captured in the photograph. I imagine that this photographer, like any good artist, knew that their work might speak across time, sparking conversations and inspiring new ideas about what it means to be human.