Familie Brouwers drinkt thee op de plantage Accaribo, Suriname 1916

This photograph, "Familie Brouwers drinkt thee op de plantage Accaribo, Suriname," is a snapshot of colonial life. It's tough to know exactly when this was made or by whom, which means we're already dealing with a kind of found object, a bit of a mystery. The sepia tones give it a ghostly feel. It’s easy to see the figures bathed in the light of the day, all their forms are present, but the detail in the shadows is less certain. The Brouwers are positioned formally around the tea table, as though their identities are tightly bound up in their place in this scene. It’s a moment of privilege, but also a construction, a staged performance. That careful composition, though, gives way to something more unsettling: the stark contrast between light and shadow. Maybe that interplay is what’s really at the heart of this image: the dance of surface and depth, clarity and obfuscation. It reminds me a little of some of the great history painters like Manet, who was so good at revealing the underlying artificiality of the grand tradition.