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In the latter half of the nineteenth century, photography was especially prized for its seemingly objective qualities. It offered an ideal means of documenting the huge variety of objects existing in the natural and human worlds. Once these objects had been photographed, they could be organised into classificatory systems and accessed according to scientific principles.

This dispassionate approach could be seen in photographs of subjects from the natural world as well as photographs of people. In 1874, A. Boyd, the Superintendent at the Port Arthur penal settlement, embarked on a comprehensive documentary project—for official reasons presumably, he photographed all the inmates living at the settlement. Each man was photographed in exactly the same way, posed in front of a neutral backdrop and depicted from the same vantage point.

The love of classification and order can be seen in the use of formats that established logical groupings, with photographs being presented in pairs, rows, or in large series of images and albums with set narratives.

 

Introduction
1860s and 1870s
A love of order
Panoramas
Photography & war
Communities
A people's history