Aanvoer van cacao op "Ma retraite" 1903 - 1910

Hendrik Doijer captured “Aanvoer van cacao op ‘Ma retraite’” in a cyanotype of 122 by 160 mm, a fitting medium for colonial documentary given its reproducibility and low cost. The print arranges people and architecture in a composition of labor. Linear forms of stacked lumber lead to baskets of cocoa, continuing to the workers and the buildings that house this process. The photo's cool blue palette gives a muted effect. The effect is to neutralize the scene of the colonial economy. Doijer’s method introduces semiotic questions on the agency of representation. The tonal range, reduced to blue, and the mechanical nature of photography, creates a visual system that distances us from the realities of plantation life. Is the image intended to celebrate the efficiency of cocoa production? Or does its formal presentation mask the complex dynamics inherent in this colonial landscape? The photograph then, is a site of tension between documentation and interpretation.