Op weg naar Tjilatap 1947 - 1949

This photograph, ‘Op weg naar Tjilatap’ by De Spaarnestad Ltd, is like a dark, grainy dream. The artist is working with strong verticals and diagonals, creating a sense of depth, the darkness contrasting with the pale tones of the figures who seem to be pushing, or lifting a fallen tree out of the way. What did it feel like to stand in the dark with those figures, struggling together? I think about the way the artist has layered the figures one behind the other to make a composition that is as much about the mass, as the individual. I see this as a conversation with artists like Muybridge, whose motion studies also explored the relationship between figure and ground, and the passage of time. Like all good artists, the photographer has taken a moment and made it eternal, inviting us to contemplate the possibilities and meanings of the scene.