Werknemers in het riethuis van suikerfabriek Boedoeran in Sidoarjo op Java c. 1925 - 1930

This sepia photograph captures workers inside the reed house of the Boedoeran sugar factory in Sidoarjo, Java. It's hard not to think about what it must have been like to be Isken at that moment, holding the camera up to their eye, trying to capture not just the scene, but the very air of the place. I imagine the artist being there, in the thick of the scene, surrounded by a jumble of sugar cane, workers milling around, the air buzzing with industry. Just look at the angles! They seem determined, even urgent, as they try to render the chaos of the place, the mountains of reeds teetering, threatening to overtake everything. It reminds me that art is always a conversation, artists borrowing from each other, pushing against each other, all of us trying to make sense of the world in our own way. Painting offers one path, photography another, and both are invaluable in the quest to see, to feel, to understand.