Kappen van oerbos voor de aanleg van een rubberplantage van de Deli Maatschappij bij Soengei Tassik op Sumatra c. 1900 - 1920

This photograph, of the rainforest being cleared in Sumatra, is a study in black and white, shades of grey. It seems to have come into being like a kind of violent erasure, a process of trial and error, maybe even a certain intuition on the part of the anonymous photographer, like 'this must be recorded.’ I can only sympathize with the artist. I can feel a sense of being overwhelmed, or maybe the opposite: a sense of brutal, direct purpose. What was he or she thinking when they made it? This image, with its tonality, its lines and stabs, evokes a feeling of deep unease. The surface of the image shows a field of tree stumps. The gesture is that of absolute deforestation. It makes me think of other photographs, maybe those of war zones. I think of other kinds of violence and exploitation. It's a reminder that artists are always in conversation, an exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity, even in this devastating way. It leaves a permanent impression.