Gezicht op een groep onbekende personen in een kring voor een hanengevecht before 1897

Curator: Let's turn our attention to this photograph entitled “Gezicht op een groep onbekende personen in een kring voor een hanengevecht," translating to "View of a group of unknown people in a circle for a cockfight." The gelatin silver print, captured before 1897 by Christiaan Johan Neeb, offers a glimpse into a past time. What's your initial reaction to this particular view? Editor: Honestly, a sense of discomfort. Even without the title, there's an ominous quality about the closely packed group and indistinct action at the center. A feeling of exploitation. Curator: It is difficult to look at these spectacles with modern sensibilities. Neeb's work often documented aspects of colonial life. He spent a number of years in the Dutch East Indies, modern-day Indonesia. Editor: Ah, that colonial context is vital. This isn't just a group of people watching a sport; it speaks to issues of power, domination, and perhaps the exploitation of local traditions for entertainment, and maybe gambling too. It highlights the power structures inherent within the colony. Were these fights organized by or for the colonizers themselves? Curator: Records do point to it as entertainment that gained popularity amongst both the European colonizers as well as some segments of the local population. You can see it acted as a common space, or perhaps a location where there might be potential for collaboration or competition among them. What strikes you about the technical aspects of the photograph? Editor: The landscape surrounding it all makes it appear commonplace or almost rural. You have these individuals standing outside, congregating in an open yard in front of an exterior brick wall. The blurring, which obscures individual faces and sharpens the overall sense of activity and potential moral corruption. I am very much trying to search the picture for who is standing where and how this gathering impacts local societal power dynamics. The blurring, as you suggested, only obscures more of those critical elements. Curator: The print is a snapshot of its time, one that allows us to dissect the society, mores, and realities in the colony during this period. Editor: Exactly. It makes me think about how photographic realism was and continues to be implicated in these kinds of power dynamics and biased, inequitable portrayals. Food for thought, for sure.