A Photograph in Time...

"Documentation photography is like insurance: expensive and possibly unnecessary until the day you need it."

By Ric Bolzan 

Australian Natural History
VOLUME 23 NUMBER 10 SPRING 1991

“During the early years of the camera, everyone had an idea if its usefulness.” So wrote Gail Buckland in her book First Photographs to describe a seven-and-a- half-pound potato photographed in the 1850s, presumably to confirm its existence for the record. Something as apparently straightforward as a documentation photograph is considered useful or useless depending on whether it satisfies the needs of the viewer.

The Australian Museum has been collecting, documenting, and storing items of scientific interest for over 150 years, and photographing some of those for just over the last 120 years. These photos were taken firstly using the collodion wet plate process from the 1850s, then the silver gelatine dry plate process from the 1880s and finally flexible film from the turn of th€ century. Thus the Australian Museum not only has some of the earliest scientific photographs taken in the world, they also form part of a continuous photographic record of the investigation of the natural environment and indigenous peoples of this region. The early collection contains about 10,000 glass plate negatives with images as diverse as manta rays, animal habitats, plant fossils, starfish, thylacine skeletons, archaeological specimens, ethnographic artefacts and Aboriginal people.

The original documentation photograph of a feathered back ornament. It was part of a ceremonial costume used by the Marind-Anim people in the Dema Goes (‘ghost of the crab’ ceremony). The photograph was taken in 1916 by Charles Clutton and has since been used as a guide to its conservation and reconstruction.

The collection, however, is not static. The Photography Section is still involved in the documentation of material gathered for research, display and publication. One constant challenge for museum photographers has been what to document and to what degree. During the period of the collodion process, each glass plate had to be coated, exposed and then processed before the emulsion dried. Hence a photograph was not made without some careful consideration of its usefulness. The emulsion consisted of guncotton dissolved in ether, containing potassium iodide, and sensitised on the spot with silver nitrate. They are identifiable by a creamy-brown colour, and usually an uneven emulsion coating. Today the equipment and materials are less expensive and easier to use, but the demands for both quality and quantity are higher.

This raises the issue of the value of documentation photography, and the reasons for maintaining those photographic records. Will the photograph ever be used, and if so, when and how? The attitude taken at the Australian Museum is that documentation photography is insurance. Expensive and possibly unnecessary until the day you need it. lt was for this reason that a project was undertaken in 1985 to photograph fragile items from the Museum's Pacific anthropology collection prior to transfer into a newly constructed and higher quality storage.

During the photography of these fragile items an intriguing mystery emersed. About 50 objects originating from the Marind-Anim people of lrian Jaya were recorded as six ceremonial costumes. They shared the same few registration numbers, but didn't seem to fit together. A conservation project was being planned by the Anthropology and Materials Conservation Departments at the time, so it was decided to conserve these objects and unravel the mystery. This was not only because of their fragility, but also their cultural importance, having been used in an 'angai' (feast), and being representative of Marind-Anim material culture. The Marind-Anim people have lost much of their cultural heritage through contact with European missions and government. According to Walker and Mansoben (1990), "The loss of ritual and ceremonial life and the breakdown in the traditional belief system has left these people somewhat dispirited and  directionless.

The larger pieces were constructed from sago spathe, covered in ochre, decorated with seeds (Giddy Giddy and Jobs Tears), and held together with fibre and sticks. Smaller pieces were made with sticks, cut feathers and bits of wood and looked like some kind of dart. Under close examination all the pieces showed signs of repair with the same materials, indicating that they had been used a number of times for ceremonies and were prone to disintegration under normal conditions of use the obvious questions were asked as to why they were no longer complete. Had some larger objects fallen apart as a result of poor storage or were they separated for ease of storage? Was there some error in registration in the past? What did the original objects look like?

A recent colour documentation photograph of a portion of the same Marind-
Anim feathered back ornament shown in the black-and-white photograph,
taken during the conservation project.

The search was on. Written records showed that in July l9l5 W.W. Thorpe,  the Museum's ethnologist, had asked Mr L. Berkhout, Assistant Resident at Merauke, south-eastern New Guinea if he could collect any 'ethnographica' from that area for the Australian Museum.
In reply, the Museum received from Berkhout a letter and three cases of material in October 1916. Berkhout stated "The ethnosraphica is gathered from some feasts of the 'Marindanim' (the people that live on the coast between the Bensbach River and the Marianna Street...) at Wendoe, Dutch South New Guinea." In exchange he requested that the Museum send him "... a collection of poststamps from Australia, New Seeland, Papua, New Caledonia and other Colonies, for I am collecting stamps...". Thorpe replied, undertaking to send a collection "...in due course", and requested more information about the use of the objects. However there are no records of any further correspondence and thus limited information about the objects, how they were used, their significance or whether Berkhout received his stamps.

Detail photograph showing the seeds and ochre that form part of the decoration
of this and other ceremonial costumes made by the Marind-Anim people early
this century.

The search provided some information, but the project was hampered by a lack of visual information about the original appearance of the costumes. Finally four glass plate negatives were found in the photographic archives, made in 1916 when the objects were acquired, and new prints were made. These prints showed how the parts of the costumes were assembled, their original condition and made it possible to determine how much deterioration had occurred. Thus, due to a decision to photograph some of those objects and keep the negatives, a more accurate reconstruction and conservation was possible 75 years later. In the case of the Marind-Anim ceremonial items this early decision to take documentation photographs was most fortunate indeed.

But does the photograph only serve that purpose? A conservator is interested in the physical construction of an object, an anthropologist in its design and context, and a photographer in the total appearance of the image. Incidental or peripherl details may contain indicators about the culture or practices of the time the photograph was taken. For example, how many portraits taken in the last century are now more interesting for the clothing fashion, or details of vehicles or buildings in the background, than the identity of the subject. It can also reveal information about the photographic process. In the plate reproduced here, its possible to deduce from the weather-boards in the background and the diffused but direct lighting that the photograph was taken outdoors on an overcast day using daylight rather than studio lighting. But to the original photographer the object itself was the aim of the photograph and the background was irrelevant or incidental. That principle is still the same for all Australian Museum photography, however with the availability of more 'dedicated equipment, its possible lo produce negatives in which all non-essential information is excluded. But by doing this we are now eliminating evidence about the photographic process and possible clues for future pictorial analysis.

There have been many changes to the Australian Museum collections over the years, in attitudes, priorities, resources and documentation methods, as well as the condition of those objects within them. The Museum is no longer seen as just a repository for curiosities, collected for their own sake, but a resource for information and understanding. Research and the maintenance and improvement of the colleetions are central to that aim.

Suggested Reading

Van Bal, J., with Collaboration of Verchueren, Father J., 1966. Dema: description and analysis of the Marind-Anim culture (South New Guinea), The Hague: Hijhoff. K. Instituit vooor Taal-, land-, en Volkerkunde translation series 9

Walker, M. & Mansoben, J., 1990. Irian Jaya cultures: an overview. Irian 18: 1-10

The Author
Mr Ric Bolzan is Manager of Photographic Services and the Archival Photographic Collection of the Australian Museum. The collection contains some of the earliest natural history photographs in the world and an excellent collection of ethnographic images.