Pagina 38 van fotoboek van de Algemeene Vereeniging van Rubberplanters ter Oostkust van Sumatra (A.V.R.O.S.) c. 1924 - 1925

This photograph by J.W. Meyster is a page from an album documenting the activities of the General Association of Rubber Planters on the East Coast of Sumatra. Here, we see a tractor at work, a potent symbol of industrial agriculture. The image captures the mechanization of rubber production, far removed from craft. Yet consider the material reality: each component of this tractor was forged, cast, and assembled through skilled labor. It stands in stark contrast to the backbreaking work it replaces. The figures are posed, almost celebratory, amidst the freshly plowed earth, the photograph itself a key tool in promoting the modernization and expansion of rubber plantations. It’s a reminder that every manufactured object is born of human effort and ingenuity, inextricably linked to wider social issues of labor and resource extraction.