Anthropology and Photography at the American Museum of Natural History

3/2/09-Initial Findings

The first step in uncovering the story behind the image occurred immediately. Professor Geismar led the class to the file drawers from which our images had come from. My photograph was stored in a drawer with the label on the outside reading Drawer 177- Expeditions-New Oceania- Johnson, North Borneo, New Hebrides. I begin by first going directly to the section titled Johnson-New Hebrides, almost instantly I found a photograph that appeared to be related to my image. It looked like the same three men from my image were the subjects of this photograph, number 108318. Additionally, the text on the back of the photograph said, Nagapate and his head men inspect the picture making machine, this text identifies one of the subjects as Nagapate, which is the same name as the man in my image.

I did some more digging and discovered that the image above was part of a series of photographs. The numbers are faint on the reproductions but clearly visible on the original images, forming the series 108317, 108318, and 108319. Like these images, my image also starts with the same first three numbers, 108. It seems plausible that the photographs were numbered in the order that they were taken or printed. However, according to Barbara Mathe, in the early days of photography for anthropological purposes there was a serious lack of organization of photographs for archival needs. Barbara stated that the original order of photographs was rarely preserved in the past, due to the concern at the time being more with the data in the image and not in its provenance. She also mentioned the past practice of images being reproduced and circulated constantly, unlike the current practice of treating the photographs as pieces of original objects in the collection (Mathe, AMNH tour 3/2/09).

In light of this information it is feasible to assume that the numbers themselves have less meaning then the subject matter of the photographs. However, in the case of the three images above, due to both the similarity in subject matter and the numbering system, this researcher feels confident in declaring that they are related to each other. There is also evidence to support that the above three images are related to my image. In addition to Nagapate’s presence in two of the images, there is also the matter of the white screen in the background of image 108317. It does not appear to be the same type of screen that the three men in my image are standing in front of, but it is a white screen. Slowly a story is starting to emerge that debunks my original idea that the image was a zoomed out picture of candidates for close up portraits. I still am not a hundred percent sure if all these other images of film cameras and screens may not simply be documenting the gear used when photographing/filming an expedition. I discovered several images that appear to support this idea of documentation. The image belowisare similar to what I mentioned in the introduction, a picture of a picture, an image of Martin Johnson with his camera and a group in the New Hebrides.

[This is not an image from the museum, but a comparable image taken from Osa Johnsons Bride in the Solomons]

At this point outside research is necessary to validate or invalidate the suggested theories related to my image. Before moving on it is relevant to mention that there were more images with Nagapate in them. The text on the back of image 108306, in reference to the pictured Nagapate said, “most powerful black ruler in the world”. Other images with Nagapate call him the chief of the big Nambas, mention that Rombe is his brother and Ville Ville will be chief when Nagapate dies. I also noticed the place names of many of the other photographs to better situate my understanding in a geographic sense. Some of the places photographed were, the Island of Vao, Toman, Port Sandwich and Santo Island.

Martin and Osa Johnson

Admittedly the first research step taken outside of the Museum’s library was to do a search online for Martin and Osa Johnson. One of the top results was for the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum. This museum, pictured above, is located in Kansas, the birthplace of both Johnson’s. The vision statement of the Safari Museum reads as, "To cultivate a spirit of adventure and exploration through the preservation and presentation of Martin and Osa Johnson’s life work" (Safari Museum website). Below is an image of Martin and Osa Johnson.

In my online research I also discovered that Martin Johnson wrote a novel of his expedition titled “Cannibal-land; adventures with a camera in the New Hebrides”. Before going into detail regarding the book let us first examine the Johnson Safari Museum. The museum was created in 1961 and was originally called the Safari Museum. The mission of the museum is to “collect, preserve, and make available the life work of Martin and Osa Johnson, while continuing their work of sharing the knowledge of natural history and cultural anthropology with the global community" (Safari Museum website). The museum is home to an extensive collection from the Johnson’s many exploratory trips abroad. The collection consists of film, photographs, field journals, and artifacts from their trips (Safari Museum website, collections). It is here within the body of information pertaining to their collection that I make the first factual connection between my image and the Johnson’s. It is written that, “the Johnson’s made two expeditions to the South Seas in 1917 and 1919 (Martin had visited the Solomon islands and New Hebrides with Jack London, 1907-1909), and two to Borneo in 1920 and 1935-1936 (Safari Museum website, collections). The paragraph goes on to mention the many trips that the Johnson’s made to Africa, but for the purpose of our research we will stay focused on the South Seas trips. A map of the South Seas area has been inserted to aid in geographic placement. The Johnson Safari museum also notes that, “although their South Seas films brought them global fame at the time, it is the five African expeditions for which they are best remembered (Safari Museum website, collections). A story is slowly beginning to emerge around the Johnson’s as adventurers, explorers, filmmakers, photographers, and authors. Osa Johnson’s book “I married Adventure” implies that she was not the instigator in creating the lifestyle that they ultimately lived, but joined in. Martin Johnson’s first trip to the South Seas, as mentioned earlier, was aboard Jack London’s boat, the Snark.

Martin was hired by Jack London as a crewmember on the Snark for the voyages that took place between 1907 and 1908. It was on this trip that Martin first visited the New Hebrides, as well as Samoa, Fiji, Solomon and the Hawaiian Islands. The images here are of the boat the Snark, and a young Martin Johnson photographed on the Snark's stop at the Solomon Islands (Jack London Online Collection).

Martin and Osa Johnson both published many publications pertaining to their experiences on their trips. Directly related to our subject of research is the book “Cannibal Land; adventures with a camera in the New Hebrides”, written by Martin Johnson and published in 1922. Fortuitously the first chapter of the book is titled “Introducing Nagapate”, which will shed light on the relationship between Martin Johnson and his named subject, Nagapate. The book begins with Martin’s account of his first view of New Hebrides from aboard the Snark. He states that it was on that trip that he became inspired to make “a picture record of the primitive fast dying black and brown people that linger in remote spots. Into my boyish love of adventure crept a purpose that has kept me wandering and will keep me wandering until I die” (Johnson, 4). Despite the populist slant of the Johnson’s work, Martin was well aware that there was power in the images that he was capturing of a fast changing world. Johnson tells us that his main interest in visiting Malakula was to “get among savages who were unspoiled-I had heard that there were parts of the island of Malakula, that no white man had ever trod, so I decided that Malakula was the Island I wanted to visit” (Johnson, 7). The irony of course in Martin wanting to preserve a way of life among peoples that was rapidly changing, is that he was a part of the reason for the change. Martin goes on to recount his and Osa’s first experience with the inhabitants of northern Malakula, the Big Nambas. Martin gives a dramatic telling of their landing on the shore of Malakula and consequent surrounding by ‘savages’ who though frightful looking allowed Martin to photograph them. Martin learned that the chief was in the bush so he and Osa made there way to him only to have four guns held by natives pointed at them blocking their exit out of the bush. Before the situation escalated, Nagapate the chief stepped out to meet them. Martin writes the following of his first impressions of Chief Nagapate:

He was enormously tall, and his powerful muscles rippled under his skin, glossy in the sunlight. He was very black; his features were large; his expression showed strong will and the cunning and brutal power of a predatory animal. A fringe of straight outstanding matted hair completely encircled his face; his skin, though glossy and healthy-looking, was creased and thick, and between his brows were two extraordinarily deep furrows. On his fingers were four gold rings that could only have come from the hands of his victims. I thought I might win this savage to friendliness, so I got out some trade stuff I had brought with me and presented it to him. He scarcely glanced at it. He folded his arms on his breast and stared at us speculatively. I looked around. From among the tall grasses of the clearing, there peered black and cruel faces, all watching us in silence. There were easily a hundred savages there. For the present there was no escape possible. I decided that my only course was to pretend a cool indifference, so I got out my cameras and worked as rapidly as possible, talking to the savages and to Osa as if I were completely at ease (Johnson, 17-18)

The story ends with the Johnson’s being ‘rescued’ by the chance arrival of a British patrol boat that had temporarily anchored in the bay below. The book goes on to tell of their experiences in their South Seas trip of 1919. The second meeting with Nagapate is retold in detail and is of a much more positive nature. Nagapate, with some of his men steps aboard the Johnson’s boat and commences to eat dinner with them. Martin shows Nagapate photographs and a color poster depicting Nagapate, which elicits a wondrous reaction from Nagapate and his men. Martin gives them trade goods to take with them as they leave the boat to return home (Johnson, 63). In this instance we see the power that photographs can have on creating a common language and a means through which two very distinct peoples and cultures can communicate.

Photography in Anthropology

The use of photography for anthropological purposes was initially viewed as a marvelous addition to the scientific tool kit available to early anthropologists. This inclusion of photography, as a valid method of recording, cast a negative light on previously used visual aids, “a sketch or watercolor of an ethnographic scene, no matter how carefully rendered, lacked the immediacy and objectivity of an anthropological photograph” (Griffiths, 89). Currently we are aware that photographs have the ability to showcase one version of reality, to focus on certain ideas and beliefs of a time period. In this same way photographs can support or capture a moment in anthropological theory. It has been claimed that, “photography as such has no identity but is instead colonized by external interest groups that put it to work in its name” (Geismar, 522). Photographs can be problematic because the mind wants to believe visual evidence as fact, however there were many instances in anthropological photography of the manipulation of images. In addition to the known manipulation, “historians have pointed out that a great many of these photographs were subjected to extensive retouching and other techniques that altered the relationship of the sign to its referent” (Griffiths, 89). In the instance of the life groups in the Northwest Coast Hall at the AMNH, Boas commissioned photographs to be created using indigenous peoples as props in scenes of his creation. There is then the question of who the photographer is and what agenda they may have. Many anthropologists relied on photographs from non-anthropologists and, “paid scant attention to the provenance of photographs and had few qualms combining photographs made by travelers, missionaries, colonial administrators, expatriates, and commercial studios with their own images” (Griffiths, 111). This practice again raises the question of a created reality best suited to the anthropologists needs at the time. This practice of commercially created photographs crossing over into the anthropological realm and making it into ethnographic studies directly pertains to our image.

Martin Johnson was not a trained anthropologist nor was his wife Osa. As mentioned earlier, the Johnson’s were explorers whose purpose in photographing and filming indigenous peoples and areas came from a commercial angle. The images the Johnson’s recorded were “primitivist and exoticizing, but nonetheless Cambridge anthropologists managed to also successfully appropriate them” (Geismar, 553). The fact that the image for this paper, photographed by Martin Johnson, was retrieved from the archives at the American Museum’s Natural History research library speaks to this point. In fact at the archival library at the AMNH there was at least one full pull out file drawer dedicated to images the Johnson’s took in the South seas, and more then likely there are more drawers for the other areas the Johnson’s photographed. Bernard Deacon, an anthropologist who wanted to work with the Big Nambas peoples, took with him images from Johnson’s film of the Malakula region to help establish contact, despite being an academic anthropologists who said Martin Johnson’s film “was a pack of lies” (Geismar, 553). This example signifies the importance of the Johnson’s images to the anthropologists and documents an overlap between disciplines. Moreover, Johnson’s skill as a photographer “did not go unrecognized in anthropological circles: his real magic was the ability to use his photographic images to connect contexts, to bring New York City to Malakula” (Geismar, 553). In our image Nagapate and his headmen are observing the different props needed for setting up the viewing of a film. Our image in fact shows Martin Johnson’s goal of documenting the Big Nambas people’s reaction to this alien event of a film screening of themselves. In this time before the technological advances of mass communication Martin Johnson created a global reality for both the peoples of the western world and the Big Nambas peoples. As Nagapate told Martin, in reaction to the film images he viewed of different cities in the world, “he had not known there were so many white people in all the world and asked me if the island I came from was much larger then Malekula” (Geismar, 551). In this current internet age that provides an infinite number of diverse images available at our fingertips, it is difficult to imagine the effect that early day photographs and film had on people in homogeneous closed societies.

Conclusion

Photography is a powerful tool that has led to deeper understandings of other cultures and peoples, but there should always be caution and a critical eye applied to the viewing of and meaning inherent behind the image. The initial act of viewing the image 10872 without biased information but simply with a critical eye enlisted such a practice. It helped make apparent the reality that an image without context can have a multitude of meanings. However, the simple presence of text still does not remove the need to question and dig deeper into the meaning and intent of the photograph. My initial guesses regarding what the image depicted proved to be incorrect.

However, I did say that the image appeared to be exposing a staged scene. Although not a staged scene in the explicit sense of a Boas life group sense, it could be argued that Martin Johnson was exercising a degree of manipulation when documenting the Big Nambas people’s reactions to his film screening set up. This research has made clear the power photographs have in conveying meaning, and the unavoidable fact that as our world changes our perspective changes, directly impacting our interpretation of past images.

Lona Popovic, NYU Museum Studies

References

Geismar, Haidy. 2006. Malakula: a photographic collection. Comparative Studies in
Society and History. New York University.

Griffiths, Alison. 2002. Knowledge and visuality in nineteenth century anthropology. In Wondrous Difference: Cinema, anthropology and turn-of-the-century visual culture. New York: Columbia University Press.

Johnson, Martin. 1922. Cannibal Land; adventures with a camera in the New Hebrides. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.

Jack London Online Collection. http://london.sonoma.edu/

Mathe, Barbara. Tour of Research Library. American Museum of Natural History.
3/2/09.

Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum. Chanute, Kansas.
http://www.safarimuseum.com/