Tillema's photo exhibition gives emotional experience

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.