Monument for caravan porters, Ed van der Elsken, after Arthur Dupagne, 1959
gelatin silver print, h 250mm × w 502mm
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© @Ed van der Elsken
Van der Elsken was interested in contrasts and often depicted them by juxtaposing photographs. At the left is a monument commemorating the construction of the railroad that made the work of forced labourers obsolete around 1900. Until then they had had to carry all the goods on foot from the Congolese coast to the interior. At the right a proud young prince in Sierra Leone is borne aloft on his servant’s shoulder.
