Javaanse mensen bij een festival in Jogjakarta 1902

This photograph of Javanese people at a festival in Jogjakarta was taken by Carleton Harlow Graves, maybe sometime in the early 20th century. I can imagine him setting up his camera, carefully arranging the composition to capture the atmosphere of the festival. I wonder what caught his eye. Is it the way the light filters through the cylindrical structures? Maybe it was the faces in the crowd, or the juxtaposition of the people with the ceremonial objects? I can almost feel the heat and the hustle. There’s a certain stillness amidst the implied activity. The sepia tones give it a timeless quality, like a memory fading at the edges. Carleton Harlow Graves, like many painters, was probably trying to capture a moment, to freeze it in time, and it makes me think about how we, as artists, are all in conversation with one another, trying to make sense of the world through our own perspectives and experiences.