Patiënten poserend voor een ziekenhuis te Pangkalpinang c. 1900 - 1920

This photograph, whose maker is now unknown, shows patients posing in front of a hospital in Pangkalpinang. It’s captured in muted greys, like a memory softened by time. I imagine the photographer carefully framing the shot, trying to capture the scene with a mix of formality and empathy. What were they thinking as they arranged the patients? What stories did they carry with them from the hospital wards? You see a crowd of people standing in uniform, their faces blurred, yet each one holds a story, a struggle, a moment in time. The photo feels both distant and intimate, a snapshot of a place and time far removed from our own. Thinking about this image, I'm reminded that image-making is an exchange across time, and a conversation between the artist and the world. Each photograph, like each painting, embraces ambiguity, and creates a space for multiple interpretations.