Mursidah, Mursidah

Wacana Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

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Mursidah Mursidah

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Liesbeth Ouwehand, Herinneringen in beeld; Fotoalbums uit Nederlands-Indië. Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 2009, 262 pp. + 200 photos. ISBN 978 90 6718 330 7. Price: EUR 24,90 (hard cover).

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Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Volume 13 Number 1 Charting borders Article 12 4-30-2011 Liesbeth Ouwehand, Herinneringen in beeld; Fotoalbums uit Nederlands-Indi . Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 2009, 262 pp. + 200 photos. ISBN 978 90 6718 330 7. Price: EUR 24,90 (hard cover). Mursidah Mursidah Universitas Indonesia, mursidah@ui.ac.id Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarhub.ui.ac.id/wacana Recommended Citation Mursidah, Mursidah (2011) "Liesbeth Ouwehand, Herinneringen in beeld; Fotoalbums uit Nederlands-Indi . Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 2009, 262 pp. + 200 photos. ISBN 978 90 6718 330 7. Price: EUR 24,90 (hard cover).," Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia: Vol. 13: No. 1, Article 12. DOI: 10.17510/wjhi.v13i1.18 Available at: https://scholarhub.ui.ac.id/wacana/vol13/iss1/12 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Facutly of Humanities at UI Scholars Hub. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia by an authorized editor of UI Scholars Hub. 218 219Wacana, Vol. 13 No. 1 (April 2011) BOOK REVIEWSMrazek 1999 (pp. 32-33) which is not in the KITLV library. He probably means Mrazek’s 1998 Cornell dissertation published by the KITLV in 2005.The CD contains nine tracks. Their content is explained on pages 121-125, and the exact place in the book where these tracks are to be found is indicated for easy reference. Tracks one and two presents the patalon or talu, the overture medley of gamelan music and the music played while the puppeteer sets up the puppets for the opening scene, the first part of which is also presented. Track three contains a sulukan, while the remaining tracks present parts of scenes of the rest of the play.In conclusion, this book is a valuable for those engaged in wayang studies, and for others interested and engaged in the study of Javanese and, indeed, Indonesian literatures. In view of the scarcity of published materials in Modern Javanese, the book is also a goldmine for linguists interested in this important Indonesian language.--------------------------------Liesbeth Ouwehand, Herinneringen in beeld; Fotoalbums uit Nederlands-Indië. Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 2009, 262 pp. + 200 photos. ISBN 978 90 6718 330 7. Price: EUR 24,90 (hard cover).MursidahFaculty of Humanities, University of Indonesiamursidah@ui.ac.idThe Dutch East Indies time has left valuable historical evidence, both for the Dutch who ruled the archipelago at that time as well as for Indonesia, which eventually became an independent nation. With the invention of photography in the early nineteenth century and the increasing wide availability of photo cameras, photography began to be used to record events in the Dutch East Indies. Nowadays these pictures of the past are sources of important historical data, because through them we can actually ‘glimpse’ what the real past might have looked like.The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) has an extensive collection of photographs of the Dutch East Indies and they are an important source of data for research. The KITLV has also published pictorial reminiscences and the present book Herinneringen in beeld; Fotoalbums uit Nederlands-Indië (2009) is one among them. It is compiled and written by Liesbeth Ouwehand, a cultural anthropologist who works as a 220 221Wacana, Vol. 13 No. 1 (April 2011) BOOK REVIEWScollection expert at the KITLV. More than 200 photos are included in the book, which the author selected from the photographic album collection of the institute, which are personal memories of the album’s previous owners. The publication of the book is related to the KITLV’s project Photo Archives of the Dutch East Indies in an attempt to preserve the cultural heritage of the past. The project includes the digitizing and making descriptions of the photographs in the collection.Photographs stemming from one century (1860-1960) have been presented in the book and thus they may now be enjoyed by a wider public. This book is not just a pictorial catalogue. The descriptions the writer made tell the ‘stories’ behind these photographs and make them more understandable to the reader. In the introductory pages, the author explains how the pictures were made. In the nineteenth century, photographs were usually made by professional photographers, who had a studio where people could come to have their photograph taken. In the early twentieth century, also individuals came to own their own cameras and they too started to make their own photos. The publication since 1934 of the photography magazine De Indische Fotowereld, attests to the existence of a reading public that was interested in photography in the Dutch East Indies. Individuals started to make personal photo albums to save the collective memories they shared with family members and friends, or as reminders of trips and travels and to record farewell occasions.In the early twentieth century, a camera was still a luxury and only (Indo) Europeans could afford to have one. Most of the photographs in this book originate from photo albums of (Indo) Europeans who lived in Indonesia during that period. Thus, the overall picture of the archipelago as recorded in these photos shows the archipelago as seen from as (Indo) European point of view. The author attempted to present a picture of the entire archipelago from Sabang to Merauke, but the limited number of photographs available from various regions in the archipelago made this difficult. Java, as the economic and administrative center with the largest population is therefore overrepresented.The photographs cannot escape the Dutch Indies colonial context. The author also underlines this context. The photographs should be viewed in the context of the notion of ‘evolutionism’ that controlled the ways of thinking of the Europeans at that time which included the idea that every society went through similar stages of development ranging from “wild” to “civilized” (p. 8). Europeans used this notion to justify their superiority and their colonization of the archipelago. Only few pictures of Chinese-Indonesian family (pp. 12, 28-30) have been selected to represent their presence in the Indies. Other types included are indigenous peoples from the Pagais, Mentawai, Sumatra, and from Merauke, Papua. In the pictures, these people are small and naked in contrast with the white men, who are tall and well dressed. Ambonese apparently saw themselves as Indo-Europeans as the men dressed in white suits while the women sported sarong and kabaya (pp. 25-28). The photos show “exotica” and the emphasis is on “anthropometric 220 221Wacana, Vol. 13 No. 1 (April 2011) BOOK REVIEWSphotographs”. It is the wilderness and the primitive people who became materials for anthropological studies, and ethnographic pictures showed how “different” they were from Europeans. Family photographs of Indos or Europeans at different social occasions clearly contrast with the natives (pp. 18-24). In contrast, pictures of modern buildings represent the progress of the colonial times. Modern buildings, such as railway stations and hotels in Tjandi, Semarang (pp. 226-227), the Military Sociëteit Concordia in Batavia, now Jakarta (pp. 237-241), show the contemporary modern state the Dutch East Indies purported to be. The portrayal of the “primitiveness” of the indigenous peoples represents the “colonized” versus the “civility” of the Europeans as rulers/colonizers.The book presents the photo albums in nine categories. They include families, regions, travel, military, and fields of study, advertisements, published pictures, exhibition pictures, and farewells. Each chapter starts with an explanation of the category it depicts, the background of the photographs, the photographers, and emphasizes an “evolutionist” perspective on the way the pictures were made. The quality of the photographs is good considering the time they were taken. They should be seen in their specific category as explained by the author at the start of each chapter. If viewed differently, the reader might be confused to see certain photographs in a specific category, for example, the eight photographs of mental hospitals in Bogor (pp.182-9) are part of the category of published pictures that expose modern colonial architecture. The advertisements of photo studios and the photographs made by professional photographers in colonial newspapers are also presented in the book. They are noted for their captions that promote pictures of landscapes, and “typen”, which means natives. The photographs were usually on offer as “exotic” souvenirs from the colony. There are some excellent and striking pictures such as those of the rice fields in Bogor surrounded by mountains and lush vegetation (p. 68), pictures of natural landscapes such as the jungle and the rivers in the island of Pagai, Mentawai (p. 55). The category “fields of study” is represented by pictures of the restoration of the Prambanan temple in Yogyakarta, complete with a map of the construction. From this, we are reminded that the current temple compound is a reconstruction ordered by the colonial government. Photography enables us to capture events and objects on paper, but photo material itself can be timeless. This book is an attempt to offer a picture of a period after (almost) one and a half centuries have passed. The book inspires us that proper documentation can become an important source of historical data for future generations.--------------------------------

Liesbeth Ouwehand, Herinneringen in beeld; Fotoalbums uit Nederlands-Indi . Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 2009, 262 pp. + 200 photos. ISBN 978 90 6718 330 7. Price: EUR 24,90 (hard cover).

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Liesbeth Ouwehand, Herinneringen In Beeld; Fotoalbums Uit Nederlands-Indië. Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 2009, 262 Pp. + 200 Photos. ISBN 978 90 6718 330 7. Price: EUR 24,90 (Hard Cover).

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Liesbeth Ouwehand, Herinneringen in beeld; Fotoalbums uit Nederlands-Indi . Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 2009, 262 pp. + 200 photos. ISBN 978 90 6718 330 7. Price: EUR 24,90 (hard cover).

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