Photography, Humanitarianism, Empire

by Lydon, Jane; Edwards, Elizabeth; Tucker, Jennifer; Hayes, Patricia

• ISBN13: 9781474235501
• ISBN10: 1474235506
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-07-14
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

With their power to create a sense of proximity and empathy, photographs have long been a crucial means of exchanging ideas between peoples across the globe. This book explores the role of photography in shaping ideas about race and difference from the 1840s to the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights. Focusing on Australian experience in a global context, a rich selection of case studies show how photographic encounters between Aboriginals, missionaries, scientists, photographers and writers fuelled international debates about morality, law, politics and human rights.

While the camera has been extensively analysed as a weapon of authority, surveillance and control, this volume uncovers a story of photography as a more complex social force. Drawing on new archival research, it is essential reading for students and scholars of race, visuality and the histories of empire and human rights.

Author Biography

Jane Lydon is the Wesfarmers Chair of Australian History at the University of Western Australia, Australia. She currently leads the Australian Research Council-funded project, 'Globalization, Photography, and Race: the Circulation and Return of Aboriginal Photographs in Europe', which is partnered with four major European museums.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Photography, Humanitarianism, Empire
2. One Blood: The Nucleus of the Native Church
3. Veritable Apollos: Beauty, Race and Scientists
4. Blind Spots or Bearing Witness: Antislavery and Frontier Violence in Australia
5. Popularizing Anthropology: Elsie Masson and Baldwin Spencer
6. 'A Ray of Special Resemblance': H. G. Wells and Colonial Embarrassment
7. Happy Families?: UNESCO's Human Rights Exhibition in Australia, 1951

Notes
Bibliography
Index