Batavia in The Nineteenth Century Photographs

Purchased : 31 December 2004 -Price : Rp. 475.000- Author : Scot Merrillees Binding:HardcoverDewey-DecimalNumber:900-EAN:9780700714360-ISBN:0700714367-Label: RoutledgeCurzon-Manufacturer: Routledge Curzon-Number Of Pages: 282-Publication Date: November 03, 2000-Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon-Studio: RoutledgeCurzon
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Batavia in 19th-Century Photographs
To begin with, 'Batavia in 19th-Century Photographs' apparently had to take a European perspective for the simple reason that all of the photographic material presented was produced by Europeans for Europeans. This, of course, does not automatically mean that the author fosters nostalgic sentiments idealizing the 'good old times'. And it would indeed do an injustice indeed to this volume, were it to be subsumed under the category of sentimental 'Tempo Doeloe' publications. This collection of photographs (from the late 1850 onwards) not only documents the beginnings of a modern city, it also documents the very beginnings of topographical photography in the Netherlands East Indies.

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By DORIS JEDAMSKI
Having been taken long before the era of highly sophisticated lenses and digital cameras, these photographs do not meet the expectations and viewing habits of the twenty-first-century observer. At first sight, they appear fascinatingly still and sometimes scarcely filled. It is, not least, thanks to the well-chosen, skillfully reproduced photo material and the balanced ratio of word and picture that the reader is drawn into the book.

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The Australian Merrillees succeeds in resurrecting tenth-century Batavia in the eye of the beholder. However, inviting us on this journey into the past, the author, at the same time, builds bridges between the colonial town on the western tip of the island of Java and the giant capital city of the Republic of Indonesia that it has grown to become: present-day Jakarta of more than twelve million inhabitants.

The impressive collection of photographs, based on the author's vast private collection supplemented by material mostly from Dutch archives and private collections, is in itself already a jewel. The author, however, takes it further. He spent years probing into the background of 'the specific places, buildings, churches, infrastructure, monuments, landmarks, organizations and commercial firms', in order to get 'a feel for the economic, political and social factors which influenced Batavia's development' (p.8).

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The result of this detective work is a well-researched commentary added to the photographs, putting each of the objects portrayed in its historical context. Some of the commentary are interspersed with descriptions taken from contemporary sources, often travel guides or travel accounts. The added index and bibliography facilitate the systematic approach to the material. In three appendices, the author provides some background information on the Nederlands Indies Topographic Bureau and topographical photography in colonial Indonesia and also pays tribute to the photographers who actually took the pictures presented in this impressive volume.
Starting off with a general introduction and an overview map of Batavia and its outskirts, the author then focuses on four parts of the city, each dealt with in a separate part of the book. The first part (76 pp.) presents 'Downtown Batavia, the Old City of the North'. In a shorter second part (28 pp.) the 'Molenvliet' is depicted. 'Uptown Batavia' or 'The New City of the South' is described in the third part (128 pp.), and the fourth and last part allows but a glance at the harbour area Tanjung Priok (6 pp.). ***

A coloured reprint of a contemporary street map of the region introduces each of these four parts. Both of the two longer sections, Part One and Part Three, are subdivided into five chapters, each one of them again introduced by a reprint of a street map of the area. These prints, some of them enlargements of selected parts, help the reader map out the terrain in question and give additional orientation and guidance throughout the chapter.

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In every single photograph, the author zooms in on the 'veins', 'bones', 'limbs', and 'organs' of the town: canals and bridges, streets, squares, churches, hotels, markets, shops, companies, and all other kinds of public and private buildings. There is Batavia's old port (pp.18-35), Batavia's Gas Works (p.102), 'The Tiffany of the East'(p.138), the post and telegraph building (pp.210-211), and China Town (pp.76-91).

The combination of visual material and text takes the reader further and beyond the surface of the picture. In his commentaries, the author gives well portioned information regarding history, function, and fate of these locations and buildings which all summed up to form Batavia. This is how we learn, for instance, about the last execution in the stadthuis in 1896 (p.44), or the demolition of the Amsterdam Poort in 1950, because it had become an obstacle to modern traffic (p.40).

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Again and again, the author smoothly bridges the past and the present. He has thoroughly investigated the current function of places or buildings that were not destroyed at some point in history but still exist in Jakarta today. One such example is the eighteenth-century residence of the Khouw family; the 'main buildings of this fine old Chinese house can still be seen in the dark and unfinished concrete shell' of an ill-fated new development. The latter was never completed because of its developer's bankruptcy in 1997 (p.90). Whenever the sites had not survived, the author points out where, for instance, street names still refer back to the past captured in the photographs.

People, however, do not take a prominent place in topographic photography. There are, in fact, only two portraits found in the collection: one of the famous Javanese painter, Raden Saleh, and the other of his second wife. Thus, if appearing in the picture, people blend in as small figures in the background, sometimes ghostly blurred shadows because of the still fairly primitive photographic technique. In a way, the author even fills this 'gap' by providing valuable information on the inhabitants of Batavia, in general, and a number of individuals in particular. For instance, there is information about the Freemasons (p.206) or Alfred Thiebault, who, among other roles, was the innkeeper of the Concordia Military Society (p.134).

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Even an overall positive book review usually comes up with at least one negative remark. I did do my best to find something I could possibly criticize regarding this publication; I did not succeed. This book is as beautiful as it is informative and it is to be recommended warmly. *
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