Kappen van oerbos voor de aanleg van een rubberplantage van de Deli Maatschappij bij Soengai Tanik op Sumatra c. 1900 - 1920

This photograph, taken by an anonymous artist, captures the deforestation on Sumatra for a rubber plantation. It’s a stark image, all grey tones, like a landscape scraped bare. I imagine the photographer standing there, trying to make sense of this environmental transformation. What were they thinking as they framed the shot, capturing the stumps of trees reaching like skeletal fingers towards the sky? What does it mean to witness this kind of destruction? It makes me think about how we’re all implicated in these global systems, how our desire for rubber translates into this scene of ecological loss. The texture of the photograph itself—grainy, faded—adds another layer of meaning, a reminder of the passage of time and the lasting impact of these actions. It’s a somber reminder that we're all connected, both to the earth and to each other, in this ongoing story of creation and destruction.