A friend of mine is really ill at the moment in hospital. At 87 years old, she is a fiercely independent woman, possessing amazing intelligence and insight, a wicked sense of humour, stubborn, opinionated, passionate⦠and one of the most incredible human beings I have met during my life. If I had not met her, my life would have been so much poorer. It is a privilege to know her. These Australian cartes des visite and cabinet cards give small insight into now largely forgotten lives, of both photographer and sitter.
If only for a brief instant, we can pull back the curtain of time and enquire into their lives and existence. In a small way, we can reanimate their earthly spirit. The poses, the props and the fashions throw an intriguing light onto the world of the nineteenth-century studio, while the stories of the photographers and their subjects combine to create a rich and vivid archive of Australian society at a precise moment in time.
Rich or poor, male or female, famous or infamous, powerful or anonymous: everyone was captured in these tiny photographs. It is such a pity that we have to loose the knowledge that age brings, the powerful sages full of wisdom that could stop the human race repeating the mistakes of the past over and over again. What is unsaid in these stories and images, is that most riches are built on the back of oppression, built on the bones of the Indigenous people of Australia.
Rich whites, buying up land, pastoralists, sending their children to school in the Old Country⦠just because they can.
Many thankx to the National Portrait Gallery for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. All text unless otherwise noted from the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.
