Jakarta 100 Years Ago
Through the window of early photography, Scott Merrillees has brought the long lost world of Jakarta back to life in his book, BATAVIA in Nineteenth Century Photographs, which presents the most comprehensive photographic record ever published of the city via the late 1850s, when the earliest known photographs were taken through to the closing years of the 19th century.
Published by Southeast Asia specialist, Archipelago Press, an imprint of Singapore-based Editions Didier Millet, the book’s 155 rare photographs – many never before published – were sourced via leading institutional in addition to private collections in Europe in addition to Australia in addition to via the author’s personal collection, all carefully reproduced in original sepia tone.
The sophisticated photographs found in of which volume are all the more surprising, considering of which they were taken during the age of the wet collodion plate, a thin piece of glass coated having a wet in addition to sticky chemical emulsion of which was sensitive to light. The glass plates were a very early form of photographic “negative” in addition to are at of which point almost non-existent in addition to impossible to find. They often broke because they were very thin in addition to fragile or were wiped clean by the photographer so they could be re-used. The glass plate negatives were used to print photographs on very thin paper coated having a solution, including egg whites (i.e. “albumen”) in addition to so were known as “albumen prints”.
Reproduction quality in addition to clarity are so detailed of which you can make out pebbles, shadows in addition to tire marks on the road, ripples in addition to reflections on water, blades of grass along a pathway in addition to the leaves of trees finely etched against the sky. In an 1880 photo of the Museum of the Batavian Society of the Arts in addition to Sciences, the present-day National Museum, the open windows without bars reveal priceless collections visible inside.
Of particular note are the captivating albumen prints via the Woodbury & Page collection, which includes images of Batavia’s landscape in addition to colonial buildings. Working in partnership, Walter Woodbury in addition to James Page established a photographic firm in 1857 of which continued to produce in addition to sell images long after Woodbury’s return to England in 1863, in addition to Page’s untimely death in 1865.
Notwithstanding the exponential in addition to unchecked expansion of today’s megacity, an unexpectedly high number of Batavia’s 19th century landmarks survive to the present day, although the structures have often been completely rebuilt, roofs reshaped in addition to ornamentation eliminated over the last 150 years; the Chicken Market Bridge over Kali Besar in Kota, the Portuguese Church on Jl. Pangeran Jayakarta, Jakarta’s oldest building still used for its original purpose, in addition to the Yin De Yuan temple on Jl. Kemenangan, one of the oldest surviving Chinese temples in Jakarta. the item might be fascinating to see these old buildings in “before in addition to after” format placed adjacent to the same scene today.
In one photograph of Koningsplein (today’s Medan Merdeka), the reader can almost feel a refreshing breeze blowing unimpeded across the huge open empty grassy plain, an area so gigantic of which the item took 1.5 hours to walk around. In those days, visitors even complained of which the city was spread over so large an area of which the item was “uncozy,” lacked “cohesion” in addition to of which one needed to take horse carriages everywhere because of the great distances of which had to be covered!
within the chapter entitled Molenvliet (Mill Way), at of which point Jl. Gajah Mada in addition to Jl. Hayam Wuruk, can be a wonderful series of portraits of Batavia’s premier 19th century hotels – such as the grand Hotel des Indes – accompanied by details so intimate in addition to kinetic of which the reader, looking voyeuristically back in time, can hear the tinkling of china within the bustling dining rooms, the clip clop of horses out within the broad forecourts, the splash of the water fountains within the spacious gardens as orchestra music can be carried on the evening breeze. These internationally known hotels were the choice of visiting dignitaries in addition to the centre of splendid functions for the elite of Batavia’s colonial society.
Unfortunately, many handsome buildings, such as the Harmonie Society club house, completed in 1815 – famous as a venue for grand balls in addition to state functions – were demolished to widen streets or make way for office or shopping complexes. One wonders how much more attractive the city might be today, in addition to what an asset their presence might mean for the tourist industry, had these graceful old edifices been spared.
The photographs are given a deeper dimension within the text with impressions in addition to commentaries via visitors, officials in addition to travellers. We learn of many intriguing insights over the span of decades into how hotels, restaurants, social clubs, haberdasheries, bakeries, watchmakers, jewellers, lavishly appointed shops in addition to department stores came into being, rose to prosperity in addition to ultimately suffered misfortune, their European owners in addition to native staffs disappearing namelessly into the mists of time. The rise in addition to fall of an establishment’s fortunes can be often accompanied by a rich chronicle of the lascivious scandals in addition to gossip of the day. Detailed biographies of successful Dutch entrepreneurs as well as the genealogies of their forbears who settled, lived in addition to died within the East Indies through generations are also provided.
Scott Merrillees’ unquenchable curiosity in addition to dedication has resulted in a collection of achingly nostalgic photographs of excellent quality of which succeeds admirably – both in image in addition to words – in transporting the reader back to a Jakarta of an earlier age of which can be at of which point little understood in addition to has largely vanished.
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Jakarta 100 Years Ago
Jakarta 100 Years Ago