Treinstation bij de grens van Mozambique in aanbouw c. 1886s

This photograph by Manuel Romão Pereira shows the train station at the border of Mozambique, under construction. Though at first glance it’s a simple documentary image, it speaks volumes about the relationship between materials, making, and colonial ambition. Consider the railway itself – a feat of engineering, requiring massive extraction of iron ore, precision manufacturing of rails, and intense human labor to lay the tracks. The station, likely built with concrete or brick, would have similarly relied on resource extraction and laborious construction. All this infrastructure served to extract resources from the Mozambican interior, and to exert Portuguese control over the region. The photograph itself, made with painstaking chemical processes, is a material witness to this project. The sepia tones and the way the light catches the scene, all part of the photographic process, add a layer of complexity. The photograph is not just a picture, but a material record of a moment in time, imbued with the politics of labor, colonialism, and technological progress. It reminds us that even seemingly straightforward images can be deeply intertwined with social and economic forces.