Rijstvelden bij de Goentoer, nabij Garoet, Nederlands-Indië c. 1895 - 1915

This photograph, by Onnes Kurkdjian, shows rice fields near the Goentoer mountain in what was then called Dutch-Indies. It’s fascinating how the monochrome tones render the light; it's almost like he’s painting with shadows. I am really drawn to the textures here; the way the rice paddies reflect the sky and the looming mountain in the background. I keep looking at the lines of the paddies, they are almost like brushstrokes, drawing the eye deeper into the landscape. You can feel the humidity, the sheer scale of the place, and the weight of the mountain. It reminds me a little of some of the Hudson River School painters, like Thomas Cole, who tried to capture the immensity and grandeur of the American landscape. Kurkdjian is doing something similar here, but with a different part of the world. I love seeing how artists, no matter where they are, keep having this same conversation, across time and space.