Man met paard bij een rokende vulkaan in Nederlands-Indië 1912

Onnes Kurkdjian created this image, "Man met paard bij een rokende vulkaan in Nederlands-Indië," sometime between 1851 and 1903. The limited monochromatic palette, shades of gray and brown, it's like he's captured a world stripped down to its essence. The photograph has this incredible texture, almost like a drawing. The volcanic smoke billows, creating a kind of soft, out-of-focus contrast to the sharp, almost etched lines of the landscape. If you focus on the little figure of the man and horse, they become these tiny witnesses against the grand scale of the natural world. Think of the act of taking a photo back then, it's not instant, it's a process, much like painting. It makes me think of Carleton Watkins, those monumental landscapes, but with a touch more intimacy and less of that heroic quality. Anyway, it's not just a picture, it's a feeling, you know?