MsIsobelle Morgan

PhD Research: Returning the Gaze: Decolonising colonial photography in the Solomon Islands and tracing the journey from their capture to collection

In 1908, 20-year-old Frederick Godson stepped ashore in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate to begin his new career as a planter for Levers Pacific Plantations. Among the possessions he brought from his home in New South Wales was a camera, which he used to document his experiences in the Pacific. The photographs taken by Godson capture the culture and customs of Solomon Islanders at the time as well as the working relationship they had with the white overseers on plantations.

The technology of photography emerged alongside the rapid expansion of European colonialism in the nineteenth century and became a pivotal lens through which imperial subjects were observed, classified and controlled. The visual content of such images captures the colonial gaze of empire, which prompts questions such as are social and labour relations or indigenous agency visible in these photos? These types of questions position Godson's photographs as sources for the colonial history of the Solomon Islands. However, images like those taken by Godson have their own history to tell. Each photograph has a social biography that can be investigated by examining the social, political, economic, and technological circumstances that shaped the journey of these photographs from their capture through to today.

The first stage in the life of the images is their creation, which encourages questions such as when and where they were taken, what was happening around Godson at the time, and why he chose those subjects and settings. After the photos were captured, several duplicates were made and this prompts the question of what the nature of these duplications can reveal about Godson’s view of his photos; such as why he chose certain images to enlarge to postcards to send to his mother. Almost a hundred years after the photos were taken, his son John set about describing and cataloguing them and collecting documents about Levers Pacific Plantations that he felt were related to the images. This moment in the life of the photos invites questions about their preservation and reinterpretation.

In addition to employing social biography as my conceptual framework for analysing the collection, I will also engage in fieldwork that will involve combining oral history with a reinterpretation of repeat photography methodology. Primarily used in the natural sciences to document changes to the landscape, my use of repeat photography will instead be practice-led research which positions it as a vehicle for narrating the history of the photos. By explaining the journey I will go on while retracing Godson’s footsteps to recreate his photos, I will bridge time, connecting the people and communities of the past with their descendants in the present. This will prompt questions around how these photographs can be repatriated or reconnected with present day communities.

By focusing my research on a collection of photographs rather than the traditional historical source of documents, my PhD will contribute to broader discussions in history and material culture studies about how images can serve not only as windows to the past as sources of history, but also as objects with pasts of their own and an untold history waiting to be written.