Aankomst van het vliegtuig met de delegatie van gouverneur A.H. Neijs voor een bezoek aan de leprozerie Pelantoengan 1931 - 1935

Otto Hisgen made this photograph of the arrival of a plane with a governor's delegation visiting the Pelantoengan leprosarium. It’s a scene of formal greeting captured in muted tones. Look at the way the light plays on the surface of that airplane. It's not about high contrast, but all these subtle shifts. The beauty of this photo lies in its texture. The metallic sheen of the aircraft against the flat surrounding land; you can almost feel the heat rising from the tarmac. The crowd of figures in the foreground are arranged just so, each one a slightly different tone. Consider the propeller. It is frozen mid-spin but full of potential energy. The contrast between this element and the figures relates to the stillness of the photograph as a whole. The picture plane comes alive in all these delicate details. Hisgen, a little known German photographer, captures a moment in time in a way that reminds me of Atget, who obsessively recorded Parisian architecture around the same time. Like Atget, Hisgen transforms an everyday subject into something timeless. The arrival of this plane, this delegation, it's all a dance of light and shadow.