Logeergebouw te Coronie 1903 - 1910

Hendrik Doijer created this photograph of ‘Logeergebouw te Coronie’. Just imagine him there, the light in that place, looking at this building. It looks like a guest house nestled in the tropics. What was it like to arrive there as a traveler? It’s like he has rendered the scene in tones of pale, warm gray. The shapes are soft, like a memory fading into the light. The whole scene is captured in this photographic process, which, back then, felt like alchemy. The artist is showing us a moment of calm. I can almost feel the humidity in the air, the stillness of the afternoon. And there's something so tender in the way he captures the building, like a soft embrace. It’s not trying to be overly sharp or detailed. Instead, he emphasizes the feeling of being there, as though he wants to share a quiet moment with us. It’s like painters today, how they are always in conversation with the past, learning from each other, experimenting with form and feeling, like a never-ending jam session.