Fotoalbum van Suriname 1903 - 1910. 'Souvenir de Voyage', deel 1. 1903 - 1910

Curator: Well, what an unassuming cover! It’s worn and faded, really textural. Editor: Yes, it speaks of age and use. This is the cover of "Fotoalbum van Suriname 1903 - 1910. 'Souvenir de Voyage', deel 1" by Hendrik Doijer. Curator: Ah, Suriname! From the turn of the century, photographs bound into paper. The decay around the edges gives it a definite haptic quality; I want to touch it. Editor: It immediately conjures up the colonial context. Consider the 'souvenir' aspect, aimed perhaps at Europeans wanting a tangible memory of their time exploiting the resources and labour in Suriname. How are these images mediating the relationship between colonizer and colonized? Curator: Interesting point. But, just focusing on its creation as a manufactured object, consider the labor involved in making paper in that period. The bookbinding… it was all incredibly material intensive. I want to look at it as a valuable artifact of the printing industry of the period. Editor: Right, and that production has social consequences. It brings up uncomfortable questions of who had the power to represent whom, who had access to these images, and what ideologies were being reinforced through their circulation? Curator: Good questions. You push us to consider not just the "what" and "how" of art production but the "why" and "for whom." Editor: Precisely. Curator: That red, though. It really anchors it—earthy, a muted terracotta… Editor: Perhaps recalling the literal "ground" or land of Suriname and its people—both sources of production and subject to its violence at that moment in its history? Curator: Perhaps. And a somber, striking endnote as we contemplate this piece. Editor: A complex story resides within that aging cover.