Eiso Bergsma in tropenkleding en Gerda Bergsma in lang gewaad zittend aan eettafel in woonhuis op Sumatra, de kat op tafel 1914 - 1926

This silver gelatin print captures Eiso Bergsma and Gerda Bergsma at their dining table in Sumatra. The composition is structured around the stark white tablecloth, a central form that anchors the visual space. This is sharply contrasted by the darker tones of the surrounding room and figures. The formal arrangement here speaks to the complex interplay between European domesticity and the colonial context of early 20th-century Sumatra. Note how the texture of the soft draping garment worn by Gerda subtly destabilizes any fixed binary of colonizer and colonized. Her kimono-like robe, juxtaposed with Eiso’s tropical attire, disrupts the established meanings of dress and cultural identity. Consider also the inclusion of the cat. Its presence introduces an element of the unexpected and the uncanny into the supposedly well-ordered domestic sphere. Through these formal qualities, the photograph asks us to reconsider how meaning is constructed and negotiated within the frame of colonial representation.