Gezicht op een tingroeve te Koba met transportinstallatie en mijnwerkers c. 1900 - 1920

Here is a photograph of a tin mine, with transport installation and miners in Koba. It's gray and grainy – the kind of image you might find tucked away in an old archive. I imagine the photographer, whoever they were, setting up their camera in this vast landscape. It must have been overwhelming – the scale of the mine, the activity, the sheer labor. They probably tried to find some order in the chaos. I think about the workers there. Their movements, and their routines. The image feels documentary. The image is capturing a moment in time, and trying to show what it was like in that period. There is a kind of poetry in seeing the industry of the world. We can feel the exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. This photograph captures the essence of what can be communicated through an image. It embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations.