A pair of tableau photographs forming part of a narrative sequence, showing white women being aided by Aborigines. Northern Victoria or Southern New South Wales, 1896-98.

A$10,000 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books · No longer available

Two gelatin silver print photographs, in uniform 230 x 270 mm format; no photographer s imprint; in original grey board mounts (one with a very old auction sticker), 360 x 400 mm; the prints are in superb condition, and the mounts clean and stable. The only two known surviving original prints from an extraordinary sub-group of photographs from the oeuvre of little-known colonial commercial photographer Thomas Cleary. The story of the serendipitous discovery of a group of Thomas Cleary s dry plate glass negatives is related by academic Karen Donnelly, Lecturer in Photography, Charles Sturt University, in her article The Discovery of a 19th century photographer Thomas Cleary , published in The Olive Pink Society Bulletin 7 (1/2), National Library of Australia, 1995, pp. 9-21. The article illustrates all twelve of the known glass plates from at least two narrative sequences that record staged interactions between Aboriginal and European subjects; some of these were taken in Benalla in 1896, others in Wahgunyah (near Lake Moodemere and Rutherglen) in 1897, while a few are undated and without location; several are accompanied by captions. One of the prints we offer here is the same image as Plate 10 (ibid., p.19: no precise date, location or caption); the other appears to be unrecorded. Between around 1891 and his death in 1899, New Zealand-born Thomas Cleary (c.1854-1899) worked as a travelling photographer in northern Victoria, including in the townships of Charlton, Donald, Ech

• Binding: Hardcover

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