Boomvarens 1900 - 1935

This stereoscopic photograph, "Boomvarens," was taken in Malang, Java by Neville Keasberry. It’s an example of early photography in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, and it captures the dense, exotic flora of the region. The image is a double exposure, designed to create a three-dimensional effect when viewed through a stereoscope, a popular form of entertainment and education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This method of photography would have allowed viewers in Europe and elsewhere to "experience" the landscape of Java from afar, feeding a growing fascination with the colonial world. Photographs like this served a particular purpose within the context of colonial power. They visually documented the natural resources of the region. Scholars of visual culture study such photographs as a window into the complex relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. This photograph, therefore, is much more than a simple representation of tropical ferns.