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Early photography in colonial Australia
DeCourcy, Elisa, 1986-2025
Book
Early Photography in Colonial Australia explores the origins of the photographic culture that continues to shape how we see the world. From its mid-nineteenth-century beginnings photography was more than just a new technology - it was deeply implicated in the colonial project. The invention of photographic technology coincided with the rise of imperial control across the Pacific, and many of its raw materials were extracted from colonised lands. This book offers the first major study of photography's arrival and establishment in colonial Australia. It places photographs in conversation with prints, sketches and watercolours to explore how the foreign medium adapted to the Australian environment, artistically and politically. It shows how cameras were put to work, visually redacting Indigenous custodianship and knowledge of Country to celebrate colonial construction and expeditions. Early Photography in Colonial Australia reveals the complex power of the medium. Elisa deCourcy considers these early images beyond colonial systems of knowledge and their contemporary role in acts of colonial reckoning and First Nations cultural reclamation.
Main title:
Early photography in colonial Australia / Elisa deCourcy.
Author:
DeCourcy, Elisa, 1986-, author
Imprint:
Carlton, Vic : Miegunyah Press, 2025.©2025
Collation:
xxxvi, 195 pages : illustrations (some colour), portraits (some colour) ; 24 cm.
Notes:
Cultural sensitivity warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members are respectfully advised that this publication refers to and depicts people who have passed away.Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
AcknowledgementsNote on nameingList of figures1. Arrivals2. The mobile photographer3. The photography studio4. Photographing th eland5. Photographic reproduction and circulation.
ISBN:
9780522879520 (paperback)
Dewey class:
779.9994
Language:
English
BRN:
669572