Gezicht op plantage Savonet op Curaçao before 1887

This is a photographic print made by Jacobus Rudolphus Neervoort van de Poll, depicting a view of the Savonet Plantation on Curaçao. The sepia tones and the texture of the print itself give the scene a sense of distance, drawing us back into the late 19th or early 20th century. You can see enslaved people standing near the walls. In the background the plantation house stands imposingly. The making of photographs in the 19th century was a complex process, involving chemistry, optics, and a great deal of manual skill. Yet, photography was also a technology that could be used to document social realities. Here, that includes the immense amount of labour involved in creating the plantation’s infrastructure. The walls, the buildings, the very landscape itself speak of forced labor. Ultimately, this photograph reminds us that every object and every image has a history of making, tied to wider social issues of labor, politics, and consumption. And it challenges us to consider the role of photography in representing this history.