Batikkende vrouwen op een erf 1912

This photograph, "Batikkende vrouwen op een erf", was taken by Onnes Kurkdjian, sometime around the turn of the century. What really grabs me is the way the image is composed, a very domestic scene where women are captured in the act of creating, working, talking, living. The image feels like a snapshot, but also like a carefully constructed study in light and shadow. Look at the faces. Are they obscured or revealed? And the cloth! The geometry of the batik seems to echo in the architecture, the angles and repetition. I can almost feel the heat, smell the dye, and hear the chatter in this image. The piece reminds me a lot of Degas, but from another world. You can see he had a knack for capturing a fleeting moment in time, but here the focus is not so much on the individual as it is on the collective experience of womanhood. It really makes you think about what makes art, art.