Tandradspoorweg en spoorbrug in de Anaikloof op Sumatra c. 1900 - 1920

Christiaan Benjamin Nieuwenhuis made this gelatin silver print of a railway in Sumatra sometime around the turn of the 20th century. Look at the way the whole scene is cast in a sepia tone, like an old memory fading into the past. The photograph captures a remarkable feat of engineering, a railway bridge snaking its way through the dense jungle. The texture is incredible. You can almost feel the roughness of the tracks, the tangled foliage, and the weight of the clouds overhead. The bridge itself, with its intricate latticework, is a testament to human ingenuity, but it's also swallowed up by the overwhelming power of nature. It reminds me of some of the landscapes of 19th-century painters like Caspar David Friedrich, where figures are dwarfed by the sublime vastness of the natural world. Art isn't just about capturing a scene, it’s about making us feel something.