Gezicht op een dam in de Ganges before 1867

Thomas George Glover captured this view of a dam in the Ganges with photography sometime in the 19th century. A dam, a structure meant to control and harness the power of water, carries a deeply rooted symbolic weight across cultures. Consider the ancient Mesopotamian hydraulic projects, or even the monumental aqueducts of Rome – all testaments to humankind's desire to master nature. But it is not merely about control. Water, especially in the Ganges, symbolizes life, purification, and renewal. Building a dam, then, becomes a profound act, a statement of cultural and economic power. It is a declaration of dominion and the channeling of life's most precious resource. The image elicits complex feelings; the hope for prosperity mingled with the disquieting sense of domination of the natural world. Like a recurring dream, the dam appears again and again, each time a reflection of our deepest longings and fears.