INDONESIA - Images From The Past (2e-hands)
Indonesian archipelago was published in Holland in 1911. Most of the remarkable Images in that volume were the handiwork of an obscure noncommissioned officer named Jean Demmeni who began photographing Indonesia in the 1890s when it was still a colony of the Netherlands. His pursuit of rarely photographed people, places and rituals involved years of rugged travel through jungles, up rivers, into volcanoes, and on vast seas to some of the most remote parts of the islands. As photographer for the topographical service of the Dutch East Indies army, Demmeni rarely received credit for his work. But more than 70 years after it was published, his dusty portfolio was discovered by another Dutchman, Leo Haks, who recognized Jean Demmeni for what he was - a skilled, sensitive photographer. Indonesia, Images from the Past is a tribute to a man whose photographs rank as an achievement of immense historical and artistic value and to the mighty archipelago he photographed.