Gezicht op de cavalerie in een rivier bij Kediri before 1897

Christiaan Johan Neeb created this photograph of the cavalry in a river near Kediri in Java. Neeb, a Dutch artist, worked in the Dutch East Indies during a period of Dutch colonial rule. This image is seemingly straightforward but can be seen as a complex mediation of power, representation, and colonial history. It depicts a line of soldiers on horseback crossing a river, likely Javanese soldiers serving the Dutch colonial army, set against an exoticized landscape. This image isn’t just a neutral depiction; it’s deeply embedded in the politics of the time. The act of photographing and documenting becomes a tool for asserting dominance, framing the East Indies through a Western lens, and reinforcing existing power structures. Consider how the identities of both the colonizer and the colonized are at play here: the artist, the subjects, and the audience all bring their own histories and perspectives to this image.