Spoor langs suikerriet c. 1900s - 1910s

This black and white photograph, titled 'Spoor langs suikerriet,' captures a landscape with tracks leading into the distance. The anonymous photographer, working with light and shadow, lets us see how the world composes itself. The grainy texture gives everything a ghostly feel. The tracks, like lines in a drawing, cut through the landscape. Notice how the building on stilts to the left rhymes with the lone tree on the horizon. The tonal range is so narrow, a symphony of greys and browns. Look closely and the details emerge slowly, like memories. There’s a real softness here, a quietness. It reminds me of the work of Eugène Atget. Both artists share a sense of capturing moments that might otherwise be overlooked. But where Atget documented Paris, this artist gives us the slower, more contemplative world of sugar cane fields.