Map met herinneringsfoto's van het bezoek van gouverneur-generaal B.C. de Jonge aan Semarang in 1932 Possibly 1932 - 1939

Otto Hisgen made this photograph album in 1932 to commemorate a colonial visit to Semarang, and it’s the cover that really grabs me. It's got this fantastic reptile skin effect, which is an embossed paper, and its texture makes me think about the layers we often find in paintings. I find myself wondering what it felt like to touch this cover when it was new. The repeated pattern is very tactile, very present, and it also flattens out the image, making it more abstract than representational. There’s an interesting tension here, between the surface and the function of the object. I’m also drawn to the two bright red buttons that keep the envelope closed, they seem to really vibrate against the quieter tones of the cover. Hisgen was a photographer but I wonder if he looked at the work of someone like Gustav Klimt, whose surfaces are often so rich and decorative? Either way, it’s clear that album covers can be art too.