Kamp van werklieden aan Lawaspoorlijn 1905 - 1910

This photograph by Jacob Evert Wesenhagen captures a worker's camp on the Lawas railway. I imagine the photograph slowly materialising in the darkroom, the sepia tones emerging, fixing an image of colonial life. I sympathise with Wesenhagen, trying to capture the light and the scale of the landscape. Look how the workers blend into the surroundings, small in the grand scheme of things. The huts, with their thatched roofs, stand in contrast to the raw earth, nature reshaped by human endeavour. The tonal range is quite limited, everything feels quite flattened – which could be a creative choice, a kind of visual compression. It makes you think about the relationship between progress and exploitation, between the built environment and the natural world. Artists are always in conversation with one another, even across time, building on ideas, responding to what came before. And it’s never a definitive statement, always open to new interpretations, new ways of seeing.