Pagina 58 van fotoboek van de Algemeene Vereeniging van Rubberplanters ter Oostkust van Sumatra (A.V.R.O.S.) c. 1924 - 1925

This image of a rubber plantation on Sumatra, Indonesia, was taken by J.W. Meyster; it’s a monochrome photograph with the stark geometry of vats and the roof girders of the factory. I can almost feel what it must have been like to be Meyster, setting up his camera, trying to capture the light in this enormous working space. I see the light hitting the liquid in the vats, and the hard labour involved in the production of raw rubber. I think of the relationship between photography and colonialism: how cameras were used to document and, therefore, control. This image, with its muted tones, speaks of industry and labour, but also of distance, both geographical and emotional. You can see how photography – like painting - operates through selection and framing. What the artist chooses to show, and how they choose to show it, creates meaning. Meyster has made something beautiful, but it’s also loaded with politics. Art is, after all, about seeing and being seen, and this photograph invites us to consider the complexities of that gaze.