Pagina 43 van fotoboek van de Algemeene Vereeniging van Rubberplanters ter Oostkust van Sumatra (A.V.R.O.S.) c. 1924 - 1925

This photograph, Page 43 from a photo album of the General Association of Rubber Planters on the East Coast of Sumatra, was made by J.W. Meyster. It captures workers' houses on a plantation, and the sepia tone gives it a real nostalgic feel. What strikes me is the composition, so much horizontal layering: the low buildings, the field, then the dark band of trees on the horizon. It feels like the framing itself is a kind of commentary on the labour happening there. The repetition of those rooflines, is it oppressive or reassuring? I can't quite work it out. And then that sky... the light isn't hitting it at all, which gives the image a slightly melancholy feel, like a Dutch landscape painting, but transplanted to somewhere very different. It puts me in mind of some of those early Bernd and Hilla Becher photos of industrial buildings. These images, like the Bechers', seem neutral but, of course, can't be. They are filled with implied meanings, both historical and personal.