Photography and Colonialism

Although we are asked to choose an example from the Picture Australia files I've gone outside that limit to find an Ethnographic photograph taken by one of the photographers discussed in the reading, Paul Foelsche. Picture Australia does not contain any of his ethnographic photographs because the South Australia Museum that holds the images is not a participating institution with Picture Australia.

My reason for choosing one of Foelsche's ethnographic images is because between November 2004 and February 2005 the National Archives of Australia, Canberra, held an exhibition called The Policeman's Eye: Paul Foelsche's Photography and Ethnography which I attended. It was curated by the South Australia Museum and it was the first time the exhibit had been seen in Australia even before South Australia Museum had displayed it.

The exhibition was virtually in two sections early settlement photographs and then ethnographic photos. I found Foelsche's early settlement photographs fascinating. One image he took is a photograph from the opposite bank of the river of a homestead that had a dray and team of animals pulling it. The thing that stuck in my mind was the quite obvious chopping down of trees on his side of the river bank so that he could had an unobstructed field of view. The second section was row upon row of photographs of individual Aboriginal people sitting erect on a stool with a measuring device on one side of the image. It is because of this exhibition experience I sought to find an image outside the assignment briefs instruction.

Source: 'Anceaux's Glasses: Anthropological photography since 1860
page 15, Photo by Paul Foelsche, 1879
http://www.rmv.nl/publicaties/18Anceaux/e/glasses.pdf

My viewing and reflection of images such as the one above comes from the context of the Policeman's Eye exhibition which displayed amazing early pastoral and landscape photography of the Northern Territory in the main very open and expansive portion of the exhibition and then moving to a more confined area to view row upon row of images as the ones above. In that context I felt a little confronted by the images as seeing people in such staged positions, but then again having studied anthropology I could appreciate the images in an impersonal scientific context. I could understand studying the images for bone structure, physical characteristics, tribal cicatrise patterns, physical stature (although sitting the measure allowed for calculating), etc. Their lack of skins or garments makes one wonder if these individuals are naked because of their environment and were normally naked or if directed or forced to be so by the photographer. The article refered to covering with a lap-lap, none evident in the above photo.

I can understand and appreciate why the authors from their point of view have described some of Foelsche's photographs as having a "dehumanising effect" especially if one is a descendant member of this group of peoples. If the intent of these photos was for scientific use rather than public consumption is it any different  from a series of current post operative photographs showing women, naked from the waist up, who have had a single or bilateral mastectomy? As a husband and father I would see the mastectomy photography as dehumanising of my family member but such a photo of an unknown woman brings an understanding of the trauma and disfigurement associated with the disease. This is probably not the best of comparisons but is linked in my mind. Maybe a better example would be the photos by Martin Schoeller's exhibition Close Up held at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra Nov 2010- Feb 2011 is a better example. Extreme sized head shots of famous and non famous personalities looking directly into the camera without any facial expression. Are they dehumanised images; anthropological studies; art; or something else?  One could ask if they are any different from Foelsche's images.

Even though the article was about Australia colonisation I could not help but think of all the early similar image I've seen taken of African tribes, native American Indians, etc. that ended up on postcards for the mass market and even today we see tourist photos emulating the earlier times and dress of countries – Africa, New Zealand, Hawaii, Germany, ... however more conservative dressed to meet Western morals.

Finally, having worked in a collecting institution that housed similar images and dealing with other collecting institutions in Canberra for all the negative feelings about some of these early photography there has been some very positive results. The recent, last 20 years, resurgence in family history research these photos have been a very strong link to peoples ancestry. I worked with one Aborigine family locating an image of one of their ancestors and when we finally found one the entire group, brothers and sisters in their 50s and 60s, broke down in tears of joy and I joined them. Context and perspective are such great  influences on how we view and think about image.