What is it about?
The article is about the experiences of Reverend William G. Lawes and other New Guinea missionaries who took photographs of the people they encountered and shared them with anthropologists and the press. The article examines the process of how these photographs were taken, including the equipment used, the location and climate, and the impact of these factors on the interactions between the missionaries and the local people. The article argues that Indigenous populations often played a significant role in shaping the visual portrayal of themselves and their surroundings in these photographs.
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Why is it important?
The article is important as it sheds light on imperialism's impact on indigenous communities, highlights the importance of visual records in understanding history, and offers insights into cross-cultural encounters and the role of photography in shaping our perceptions of the world.
Perspectives
This article is based on my PhD research and focusses on the subject that interested me the most while researching the early photographs of New Guinea: namely, the complex nature of cross-cultural encounters and the role of the camera/photography in shaping these.
Dr Antje Lubcke
University of Otago
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Making the visual record of New Guinea: William G. Lawes’s photographic encounters, History and Anthropology, May 2019, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/02757206.2019.1610403.
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