Black & white: documenting Indigenous Australia at MGA

Phillip J. Pike,
Untitled (portrait of Robert Tudawali as Marbuck, Jedda) 1954

Black & white: documenting Indigenous Australia surveys the history of photographers' efforts to document Indigenous Australians. Drawing primarily on material in the MGA Collection, this exhibition features 35 black-and-white photographs by some of Australia's best-known photographers, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

As we mark the anniversary of the Prime Minister's apology to the Stolen Generation, it is a good time to look at the ways Indigenous Australians have been depicted in the history of Australian photography.


J. W. Lindt,
No title (Aboriginal man holding a forked stick) (c. 1873)

In this particular exhibition, i really liked the photographs documenting the indigenous people early on during Australia's colonization. The way in which the white people photographed the aboriginals made them look even more ancient. The studio portrait by J.W Lindt really makes the man look like his from some forgotten time. And the quality of the image considering it was taken in 1873 is amazing.
The same with the portrait by Fred Kruger, his image makes the man look somewhat fantastical, like this man is from some some fantasy world.