Een gedecoreerde toren nabij een tempelcomplex 1900 - 1915

Johanna Hermina Marmelstein made this photograph of a decorated tower near a temple complex sometime in the 20th century. Photographs like this one are obviously reproducible, but that doesn’t mean they don’t carry meaning connected to material and making. Think of the photographer carefully framing the shot, and then developing the negative using chemical processes in the darkroom. The tower itself is the main event here. The tower is made of brick or stone, built up in stages, and then faced with highly articulated carving. This kind of craftwork requires intense concentration and skill, passed down through generations. We might also consider the labour involved in sourcing the materials, and in erecting scaffolding to work on the higher reaches of the structure. It's a testament to human ingenuity, but also to the power structures that would have been in place to realize such a project. By giving attention to the making, materials, and cultural context, we see beyond the aesthetic surface of the image.