Tillema's photo exhibition gives emotional experience
By Rina Rao
JAKARTA (JP): An exhibition of photographs by H.F. Tillema (1870-1952), entitled Een Blik op het Sociale Leven in Indonesie in de Jaren 20, offers a fascinating peek at life in Indonesia during the 1920's.
Though not technically perfect, the photographs, on view at Erasmus Huis, give an interesting and romantic representation of life during that time period -- what was fondly called Tempo Doeloe, or the good old days.
Apart from sharp observations, Tillema's photographs reflect a certain sensitivity and a remarkable empathy for an alien culture. That the subject holds a fascination for the photographer is evident; what is more so is that the viewer is transported to a bygone age, while at the same time sensing some continuity into the present.
Tillema has been heralded as a propagandist for social welfare, and his photographs are said to expose the dark side of Dutch colonial history by drawing attention to the social injustice suffered by the natives during colonial rule.
He used contrast as a means of signaling the appalling living conditions endured by the native population. These studies in contrast between colonial grandeur and native misery are sensitive and humane.
Perhaps the most striking and artistic contrast is the photo of a native amah (nanny) carrying her colonial master's baby contrasted with that of a malnourished native mother trying to nurse her hungry child.
Tillema's portraits of the factories and pasars (markets) are filled with color and romance, while being a social commentary. In many of the pictures, while portraying exploitation, Tillema also portrays enterprise and entrepreneurship, as in a photo of laborers digging a well.
Art form
To label these photographs propaganda after more than half a century has elapsed is to miss their aesthetic and emotional value. Photography is recognized today as an art form, and it is rewarding to view Tillema's work in that light rather than to view them as documentation through the blinkered vision of a European ethos.
The chronicle of a bygone era must be seen in its contemporary context, not measured by present-day yardsticks. Belonging to a different age and socioeconomic milieu, the photographs are testimony to the timelessness, the beauty and the pathos of the human condition.
As an aesthetic experience, these photographs evoke nostalgia, as in the photographs of the grand colonial verandah with the horse and carriage in the foreground. The sepia-tinted photographs create a quaint, colonial atmosphere and bemoan a past that is gone forever, leaving behind a lingering sense of lost romance.
A sizable portion of the exhibition comprises photographs taken by Tillema on trips to remote corners of the archipelago. The portraits of the natives of Borneo (Kalimantan), Celebes (Sulawesi) and Papua (Irian Jaya) are fascinating. They show the rich cultural diversity of Indonesia and its inhabitants.
Other photographs are amusing in their quaintness, like that of Tillema on horseback, the great laundry room and Tillema promoting his brand of mineral water.
All the photographs in the exhibition are interesting bits of history frozen on film. The joy of looking at old photographs is an aesthetic and emotional experience that is rewarding and enriching.