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er number of itinerant photographers to visit the Colony.
In early 1853 the itinerate photographer L. Saurman,
who had earlier worked in Singapore, visited Batavia
and operated ‘Saurman’s Daguerrian Gallery’ from
the Marine Hotel for a short time before travelling on.
Later in the same year another itinerate photographer C.
Duben, earlier active in Shanghai, Macao, Manila and
Hong Kong, visited Batavia for the fi rst time. The fi rst
photographer in Batavia who produced photographs
on glass and paper was Antoine Francois Lecouteux.
Starting in 1854, by mid-1855 he had teamed up with
the Belgian-born portrait painter and theatre personal-
ity Isadore van Kinsbergen (1821–1905). Lecouteux
took the photographs and Van Kinsbergen then colored
or retouched these. Lecouteux was probably the fi rst
photographer to successfully operate a semi-permanent
studio as distinct from the many itinerate photographers
who traveled from one place to another in search of
new clients, mainly rich European colonial offi cials,
merchants and planters and to a lesser extent the
Chinese upper class. Except for the local rulers, the
indigenous peoples were in no way able to afford the
prices asked.
In 1862 Isodore van Kinsbergen, by now a skilled
photographer, acted as offi cial photographer on a diplo-
matic mission to Siam and later that year accompanied
the Governor-General on a tour of Java and Bali. His
views of Bali were especially well received (he was also
allowed to to take portraits of the captured leader of
the Balinese resistance during his detention in Batavia
in 1868). This led to another government commission
to make a large-scale photographic documentation of
Javanese antiquities which occupied Van Kinsbergen
from 1863–1867, resulting in portfolios of some 350
prints entitled Oudheden van Java (Antiquities of Java).
He then was commissioned to photograph the sculptures
and reliefs of Borobudur. In the 1870s Van Kinsbergen
established a portrait studio in Batavia in partnership
with H. Salzwedel, who later operated a successful
studio in Surabaya. Van Kinsbergen continued to op-
erate a studio under his own name for the rest of the
century and like most of his contemporaries specialized
in portraiture.
In May 1857 two British photographers arrived in
the Colony from Australia. Walter Bentley Woodbury
(1834–1885) and James Page (1833–1865) had planned
to stay in Java for only a short time before travelling on
to other European colonies in the region. “Woodbury
& Page” was immediately successful and continued to
exist for nearly fi fty years, long after their departure.
First operating a portrait studio in Batavia, they quickly
started to travel around Java in search of more clients.
On these journeys they also took large plate topographi-
cal views of the towns and countryside they visited, and
Walter Woodbury also produced stereo views. Some ofthe latter were marketed by Negretti & Zambra, London,
in the early 1860s. Traveling beyond the main island of
Java representatives of the fi rm produced an increasingly
large selection of landscape views. Sold individually or
in albums these were extremely popular as souvenirs or
as gifts for family and friends back home. No other fi rm
was to have such a large selection. Similarly they pro-
duced hundreds of different native ‘types’ of the whole
archipelago, often published as cartes de visite. Mainly
produced for the commercial market, these pictures were
not so much a record of the lives of the inhabitants of the
Netherlands East Indies than a record of how European
photographers intended to depict them.
By the late 1870s all the larger towns and cities
boosted a number a competent photographers and even
in the smaller places studios were being established. By
the end of the century the fi rm of “Woodbury & Page”
was in decline, succeeded in popularity by larger, more
effi cient fi rms such as “Charls & van Es,” established
in the 1880s, with branches in Surabaya and Batavia.
Returning to England in 1863, W.B. Woodbury went
on to become a noted photographic inventor, while J.
Page died a few months after his arrival from a tropical
disease he contracted in the Indies.
Although many photographers, including “Woodbury
& Page,” had visited Sumatra the photographic fi rm of
“G.R. Lambert and Co.,” in Singapore was among the
fi rst to establish a permanent studio on the island in
the 1880s. Some of the company’s leading photogra-
phers such as C.J. Kleingrothe (Medan) and H. Ernst
(Bindjai) were to remain on the island as independent
photographers. Not coincidentally, this interest occurred
at the same time when the Dutch authorities were ex-
panding their presence into Atjeh in the north of the
island by military force. While the offi cial government
Topographical Dienst operated their own photography
division (established already in the 1860s using mainly
military personnel), many photographers, both amateur
and professional took photographs of these military
campaigns, as well as of later campaigns on Lombak
and Bali.
In the last decades of the nineteenth century also
non-European photographers became active, a trend
that would continue in the twentieth century. They were
generally less expensive that their European colleagues.
One of the few native born photographers was Kas-
sian Cephas (1845–1912). Working in Jogyakarta, the
Christian Javanese Cephas, later assisted by his sons,
began his career as court photographer to the local ruler.
Later he also received many government commissions
and provided illustrations for scientifi c publications.
Amongst the non-European photographers, the Chinese,
often from Singapore and Hong Kong, were probably
the largest group. One of the most successful was Tan
Tjie Lan in Batavia. Other important groups were theINDONESIA
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