Arbeider bij arbeiderswoning op plantage Accaribo te Suriname 1916 - 1930

Theodoor Brouwers made this photograph of a worker's dwelling on the Accaribo plantation in Suriname. I can only imagine Brouwers holding his camera, trying to get the light just right in the humid air. He’s recording a place and a way of life, framing the building with these striking banana plants in the foreground. I wonder what it was like to be there? What were his motivations? Was he thinking about the people who lived there, their daily lives, and their history? I find myself wondering about the contrast between the natural abundance of the vegetation and the stark simplicity of the dwelling. Painters, photographers, we’re all trying to capture something essential, to make sense of the world through the lens of our own experience, building on each other’s work.