Between 1904 and 1937, Augusta Curiel (1873-1937) owned a thriving photography studio in Paramaribo, assisted by her younger sister Anna (1875-1958). Using a large plate camera on a wooden tripod, the ‘Curiel sisters’ made thousands of photographs, both in the studio and on location. They received assignments to document life in Suriname under Dutch colonial rule and captured everything from official events and everyday activities to different population groups and important locations.

During Augusta Curiel’s lifetime, Suriname was a land of stark contrasts, racial hierarchies, and profound socio-economic divides, shaped by Dutch colonial rule. Slavery, abolished in 1863, was replaced by a new system of indentured labour that brought workers from Asia. In Suriname, these workers were exploited on plantations and in the mines and factories upon which the colony’s economy was built. As Anton de Kom poignantly observed in 1934, Suriname was ‘a land where the soil bears golden fruits, yet the people die of hunger’.

Though Curiel’s photographs were primarily produced on commission and made to contribute to a positive portrayal of Suriname as a prosperous Dutch colony, they also bear traces of oppression and deep-rooted inequalities. Yere Mi Sten (Hear My Voice), co-curated with Lucia Nankoe, explored Curiel’s photographic perspective, shaped by her cultural identity as a woman of colour born and raised in Paramaribo, and the ways in which her images were produced, circulated and seen at the time.

Born in 1873 in Paramaribo, Augusta grew up with her sisters Anna (1875–1958) and Elisabeth (1869–1937) and her brother Adolf (1867–1934). Her mother, Henriëtte Paulina Petronella Curiel (1840–1903), had been born into slavery and freed by her father, Mozes Curiel, a merchant born in Amsterdam, whose last name indicates Portuguese-Jewish ancestry. The three sisters lived and worked together at Domineestraat 28. Their brother Adolf was a politician, a plantation owner and trader in gold, balata, coffee, and cocoa.

Augusta and Anna opened their photography studio after their mother’s death and became the leading photographers of Paramaribo in the early decades of the twentieth century. The studio was registered under the name of Augusta: she operated the camera and composed the photos. However, Anna played an important supportive role. She advised on changing light conditions (often shouting: ‘Cloud, cloud!’), guided people into position, and took care of the administration and the darkroom. Due to the high demand for their photography, the sisters sometimes worked late into the night to develop all their negatives.

Curiel’s work is celebrated for its technical expertise and strong sense of composition, and was widely distributed in newspapers, magazines, postcards, exhibitions, souvenir albums, and family collections. The sisters worked with heavy equipment—a large camera,  wooden tripod, and boxes of glass negatives—which they carried to wherever their assignments took them. From market scenes and city streets to plantation labour and picturesque landscapes, they captured the people and surroun­dings of Suriname as their clients – often colonial administrators – desired.

Since the early 20^th century, the photographs of Augusta Curiel have been disseminated in various ways across Suriname, the Netherlands, and other parts of the world. They have not only been preserved in archives and museum collections, but also in private collections—carefully kept in family albums, in attics, or proudly displayed on the wall at home. Some of these family photographs, passed down through generations, were displayed in the exhibition, telling stories about heritage, family ties, and shared history.

Pictures such as Grandma on Her Bicycle evoke memories of beloved ancestors and important moments in life, forming a tangible connection between communities in Suriname and the Netherlands. While Curiel created many images that served both as historical records and commercial products, the emotional value of family pictures makes them into much more than visual representations of the past.

Today, Augusta Curiel’s photographs provoke complex questions about the colonial past and about memory, history and identity. They invite you to look, and look again – questioning what is visible within her frame, and what remains outside it.

Augusta Curiel – Yere Mi Sten was curated by Foam in collaboration with guest curators Lucia Nankoe, expert in Caribbean literature and culture, and Foam curator Jilke Golbach.