x
x
x
x
x
x
x
 |
| 
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.
|