Plantage Accaribo 1913 - 1930

Theodoor Brouwers made this photograph, Plantage Accaribo, sometime between 1890 and 1930, so it’s shot on glass. And right away, before even focusing on the jungle scene depicted here, you have to think about that material aspect; how heavy and fragile the medium is, the limitations of transporting photographic equipment to remote locations. And then there's the stereoscopic quality, the side-by-side images which would’ve created a 3-D effect when viewed through a special device. I love the amount of detail here, the way the light falls on the leaves of the plants. You can almost feel the humidity, the thickness of the air. It's not just a document, it's a constructed image, a way of seeing and experiencing a place, that mediates between the viewer and the depicted scene. It’s an image that echoes the photographic work of someone like Karl Blossfeldt in its forensic attention to detail, though perhaps with a slightly more subjective or romantic inclination. It's a reminder that art is always in conversation with itself, across time and different mediums.