Willem van den Berg op zijn boerderij in Transvaal, Zuid-Afrika 1967 - 1971

Editor: This is a gelatin-silver print entitled "Willem van den Berg op zijn boerderij in Transvaal, Zuid-Afrika," created sometime between 1967 and 1971 by Willem Jacob van den Berg. It strikes me as quite staged, almost like a documentary still rather than candid snapshot. What catches your eye in this piece? Curator: Well, for starters, I love how deceptively simple it is. It's more than just a farmer on his land, you know? The black and white strips away the romanticism, focusing on the relationships, the inherent tensions, between people, animals, the land, the legacy... Do you see how Willem van den Berg Sr. has placed himself with his back turned to the action? Editor: That's interesting, I hadn't thought about the turning of the back as intentional... Almost an act of witnessing but not really engaging. Curator: Precisely! What is he not wanting to see? And those workers pulling so hard. What does *their* sweat and toil mean in the bigger picture of South Africa during this time? This gelatin print, as beautiful as it may be technically, hints at complicated dynamics. Makes you wonder about the stories buried just beneath the surface of what *we* see. Does the land own them, or do they own the land, and at what cost? Editor: I see that the work is rooted in cultural and social questions now. It is a powerful image – unsettling, yet strangely…still. Curator: Absolutely. That tension, that disquiet, is where the real art often resides, isn't it? It lingers, invites us to feel more deeply. A deceivingly simple image with more beneath the surface.