Javaanse vrouwen maken een rubbertuin schoon. 1900 - 1935

Neville Keasberry made this stereoscopic photograph of Javanese women cleaning a rubber garden in Java, maybe around the turn of the century. It is a double image, almost like a painting in two panels, where light and shade interplay, creating an immersive effect. I imagine Keasberry framing each shot, carefully composing the scene to capture the repetition of forms and figures across the landscape. The women’s gestures, as they bend and tend, remind me of brushstrokes, each action contributing to the overall composition. I wonder what Keasberry was thinking as he observed and recorded this scene. Was he thinking about labour, the human connection to the land, or maybe just the play of light across the field? Painters and photographers like Keasberry are in constant dialogue, exchanging ideas across time. What does it mean to see and record the world around us? How do we interpret what we see?