Kappen van oerbos voor aanleg van een tabaksveld op Sumatra c. 1900 - 1915

Carl J. Kleingrothe made this photograph of Sumatra, likely with a camera that needed setting up each time he took a shot. The eye is drawn into the scene of devastation—the cutting down of the forest to make way for a tobacco plantation. It’s hard not to sympathize with the workers. What were they thinking as they posed for the photo? Do they feel like collaborators in this act of deforestation? What choice did they have? When you look at this scene, you can almost smell the wood and the earth. Think about Kleingrothe’s other works and how they show a similar interest in landscape and perhaps, colonialism. He’s part of a long line of artists capturing the world around them, but his lens brings a particular perspective. It’s a stark reminder that art isn’t created in a vacuum. It’s part of an ongoing conversation about what we see, how we see it, and what it all means.