Sectie S - piket 58 arbeiders bezig zand te graven 1905 - 1910

This early photograph by Augusta Curiel captures workers digging for sand, and it’s a pretty powerful image. It makes me think about what it must have been like to be Curiel, lugging around that heavy equipment in that landscape. Did she have to wait for the right light? Did she give directions? I imagine her looking for the perfect angle, wanting to show the intensity of the workers' labor. It's not just a document, but a composition. There’s a tension between the sharp focus on the foreground figures and the receding space of the landscape and the depth of the forest. The sepia tone gives the whole scene a kind of melancholic feel, like looking back at a world that's slipping away. But it also makes me think about what it means to dig, to excavate, to uncover. Whether you're moving earth or making art, you’re always trying to reveal something that was hidden. It’s an act of discovery.