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From the Archives: Photography Collections of the Archives of New Caledonia

Hawkes, Kathleen and Quanchi, Alan M. (2013) From the Archives: Photography Collections of the Archives of New Caledonia. The Journal of Pacific History, 48 (1). pp. 484-493. ISSN 0022-3344

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Abstract

Photography on the periphery of colonial empires has attracted attention in Africa and Asia but less so in the Pacific, partly due to the scattered nature of small and large collections divided between the metropole and the newer colonial archives and personal and family holdings around the globe. This has prevented the work of officially sanctioned albums, large glass plate and print collections, and smaller private collections being brought to the foreground of visual histories of French colonialism. New Caledonia, a French colony from 1853, and later promoted as a penal colony, a settler colony and a economic powerhouse due to nickel mining wealth has a rich visual history due to the popularity of photography with professional and amateur resident photographers, visiting officials and tarvellers, and the colonial adnministratiion. The Archives of New Caledonia has now addressed that problem of a scatterred archive by creating a massive collection of colonial photography of the French colony of New Caledonia in one place at the Archives of New Caledonia at Ile Nou, Noumea, drawn from private donations, purchases in Europe and astute managing of the global photography market. What is reveaed is a reinforcement of existing historical accounts, but equally divergent histories and alternative stories of life on the frontier.

Item Type: Journal Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Archives, Photography, Colonialism, New Caledonia
Subjects: A General Works > AC Collections. Series. Collected works
Divisions: Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User: Fulori Nainoca - Waqairagata
Date Deposited: 16 Oct 2014 02:42
Last Modified: 20 Jun 2016 02:44
URI: https://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/7671

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