Just as 95% of the known universe is made up of the currently undetermined material scientists call 'dark matter’, so too are the photo archives of the world. The Dark matter symposium will provide insights into historical photographs and photographic histories, and show how these histories in turn…
Geoffrey Batchen, Kitty Hauser and Michael Aird, chaired by Judy Annear
Professor Geoffrey Batchen, School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies, Victoria University of Wellington Addressing itself to the problem of presenting a nation-based history of photography, this paper points to a surprising range of photographic material that infiltrated Australia’s borders in the 19th century, suggesting that a tracing of these refugees quickly complicates our traditional notions of both 'photography’ and 'Australia’.
Michael Aird, photography historian, curator and publisher Keeaira Press For almost 30 years Michael has been researching photographs of Aborigines from south-east Queensland. By identifying who took particular images and confirming when and where these photographs were taken and by researching the lives of individual Aboriginal people, it has enabled him to determine who exactly may be featured in previously unidentified photographs. Michael will discuss what has motivated him to carry out this research over such a long period and some of the research methodologies used. In particular he will discuss the ways he has approached presenting this information in books and publications and in turn making this research accessible to the Aboriginal community.
Dr Kitty Hauser, historian and writer Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford was a British archaeologist best known for pioneering the use of aerial photography after his experiences in the First World War. When he died he left his photographic collection, including all of his negatives and a number of albums, to the Archaeological Institute in Oxford. The photographs contained some surprises that had been largely invisible or irrelevant to the working archaeologists from the Institute who had used the archive over the years for practical purposes. What emerged from the archive of photographs was a sort of self-portrait, but one that was fractured and anamorphic. Re-constructing the man from the archive was the project for Kitty Hauser’s book Bloody Old Britain (2008) and it involved issues of interpretation germane to the practices of archaeologist, spy and historian.
Judy Annear, senior curator, photographs, Art Gallery of NSW
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