Three Javanese Women Drawing Batik Designs on Cloth, Kassian Céphas, c. 1867 - c. 1910

albumen print, h 157mm × w 218mm More details

This photograph has been carefully staged. Three women draw motifs on cotton fabric using molten wax. The wax is heated in a metal pan on a brazier. When the fabric is dyed, the wax motifs remain colour-free. Then the wax is melted away and the pattern emerges.