Ongediertebestrijding op bananenbomen op plantage Accaribo te Suriname 1916 - 1930

Theodoor Brouwers made this photograph, "Pest Control on Banana Trees," in Suriname at some point in his life. I’m struck by the textures, the grainy film, the way the light just barely illuminates the worker at the bottom of the frame. Look at the way the massive leaves are rendered: they are dark but somehow still have this incredible lightness, a kind of paper-thin transparency. It’s like looking through glass. The image is so loaded with information, but in a way that’s almost abstract, like a Franz Kline painting of dense foliage. The eye travels down to that figure at the bottom, a person so still they are almost lost in the landscape. This reminds me of some of the work of August Sander, portraits of people rooted in their place and time. There's something about this image which feels very familiar to me, like overhearing a conversation you can't quite place.