Portret van twee onbekende jonge vrouwen op Pagai in de dracht van het eiland 1891 - 1912

This photograph of two young women from Pagai, was taken by Christiaan Benjamin Nieuwenhuis, sometime in the late 19th, early 20th century. I love how the women stand together, posing for the camera with a quiet strength, hands on their hips. I can only imagine what it must have been like for Nieuwenhuis to take this shot. The light is soft and the tonal range narrow. Maybe the artist asked them to pose like this, or maybe they chose to stand this way. The necklaces are fascinating, and the triangular hat worn by the woman on the right is so striking. There's something compelling about the lines drawn on the belly of the woman on the left - the image becomes a portal into different ways of seeing and experiencing the body. Photographs like this one are precious because they tell a story about a time and place that’s very different from our own. Nieuwenhuis was trying to show something about the women, but now the women show us something about Nieuwenhuis. He was looking at them, and now we are looking at him looking at them.