Twee portretten van Batakmeisjes (boven) en groepsportret van rijststampende Batakvrouwen (onder) op Sumatra before 1898

These photographs of Batak women in Sumatra were taken by Carl J. Kleingrothe, a colonial photographer working in the Dutch East Indies. They offer a glimpse into a culture undergoing immense pressure from colonial rule. The images are complex: on one hand, they attempt to document the daily lives and traditions of the Batak people. On the other, they frame these women through a colonial lens. The women are presented as exotic subjects for the Western gaze, reinforcing existing power dynamics. The very act of photographing was an assertion of control, freezing these women in time and perpetuating an unequal relationship between photographer and subject. We see this tension particularly in the lower image: although we see women working together in a communal setting, their labor is framed within a visual economy of colonial exploitation. What stories remain untold in these images? What can we learn from looking closely, not just at what is shown, but at what is deliberately, or inadvertently, left out?