It was only six years after the invention of photography in the year 1839 that Balinese artefacts like masks and statues were being captured through the lens in Jakarta. And to this day, Bali continues to mesmerise photographers with its timeless beauty. Sake Santema from Indies Gallery shares a few early photographs along with a brief history that offers a glimpse into the early photography of Bali.
The earliest known photograph of Balinese people was taken in 1864 when the King of Buleleng in Bali visited Jakarta and posed for a photograph at the studio of the photographers, Woodbury & Page. Apart from these photographs, Bali would remain largely unknown to the outside world till the early 1900s. This is mainly due to the island only coming under Dutch rule in 1908, compared to Jakarta in 1619, and thus remaining hidden to the Western world.
On the right: A Balinese Legong Dancer resting by Thilly Weissenborn, taken circa 1920. ( Sake Santema Collection )
Isidore van Kinsbergen was the first photographer to visit Bali in 1865. His travels were only limited to the Buleleng kingdom in north Bali as that was the only part of Bali under Dutch control and safe for foreigners. Other photographers would follow much later. George Lewis, an Englishman who worked for the Atelier Kurkdjian in Surabaya, was likely the first commercial photographer to document Bali in 1906. The first female professional photographer to visit Bali around the year 1920 was Thilly Weissenborn, who owned her own studio in Garut, West Java. Her works were widely used to expand the newly developed tourism industry of the East Indies.
A civilian bureaucracy replaced the Dutch military administration in 1914 and the maintenance of Balinese heritage together with tourism became the priority. Hence tourism in Bali officially began and the first tourist guide to Bali was published in the same year by The Travellers Official Information Bureau of The Netherlands Indies in Jakarta. The Illustrated Tourist Guide to East Java, Bali and Lombok included several photographs of Bali. An office of the Travellers Bureau was established in Singaraja where Western ships with the first tourists arrived. With the increase in tourism, advertisements from luxury cruise liners and later by airway companies featured photographs of Bali. Postcards were often issued by such companies or could also be purchased by various independent photo studios as souvenirs and mementoes for the tourists who visited Bali.
Today, the relative ease of travel, the digital age and Instagram-era has ushered in a different kind of photography, but Bali’s timeless beauty continues to captivate photographers. For those interested in the island’s photographic history, Scott Merrillees’ new publication, BALI Photography 1865-1939, is a must-read.
The authentic photographs in this article are available for purchase through Indies Gallery, while high-quality reprints can be found at Old East Indies.
www.indiesgallery.com
www.oldeastindies.com
