Gezicht op treinstel en publiek op het Vaillantsplein in Paramaribo bij de opening van de Lawaspoorweg (Landsspoorweg) op 28 maart 1905 Possibly 1905

Editor: We're looking at a photograph titled "Gezicht op treinstel en publiek op het Vaillantsplein in Paramaribo bij de opening van de Lawaspoorweg" – that's "View of the train and public on Vaillants Square in Paramaribo at the opening of the Lawa Railway" – possibly taken in 1905. It’s a gelatin silver print held at the Rijksmuseum and credited to Eugen Klein. It feels, somehow, both bustling and ghostly to me. All those figures, yet something so distant too. What springs to mind when you look at it? Curator: Oh, the allure of these faded glimpses into other worlds, other times! It’s like sifting through shared memories, piecing together fragments of lives lived. Don't you think it's fascinating how the photographer uses the palm trees as almost curtains, framing this scene of progress and anticipation? Are those eager faces I see? Or the rigid gaze of colonization, masked in a jubilant crowd? Editor: I hadn't really thought about that tension between progress and maybe…something less positive. I was so caught up in trying to imagine the sounds and smells of the scene. The train arriving for the first time! Curator: Exactly! Think about it. This Lawa Railway...it sliced through the landscape, didn't it? Opened up the interior for resource extraction. Beautiful, certainly – that light filtering through the trees! – but loaded with the weight of its historical moment, a colonial imprint on the land. Does the photograph not whisper of the clash between untamed nature and imposed order? What else did it come to cost, for that exuberant looking crowd in the photograph? Editor: So the image is not just showing, but also maybe… questioning that historical event? Curator: Precisely. Isn't it wonderful how a simple photograph can open up so many questions about perspective, power, and the complexities of history? Editor: Definitely given me something to think about when I look at historical photos now! Curator: Me too; it's the art, or rather, the history within the art that stays with us, isn't it?