ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two examples of photographic interaction from the Pacific between 1890 and 1910, a period when settler colonialism was consolidating after failed attempts at resistance by indigenous peoples. The photographers examined here were European women, Margaret White in Aotearoa New Zealand and Caroline Gurrey from Hawaii, who despite different circumstances were both committed to photographing indigenous peoples in ways that inspired cooperative and collaborative relationships. Pictorialism described the photographic practice of amateurs and professionals who organized and worked together to promote the art of photography and who also treated photography as a means of personal expression, emphasizing its ability to create beauty rather than to simply record facts. The photographs of Maori taken by White were held for most of the twentieth century by White's descendants, the Reed family. In Camera Lucida Roland Barthes wrote: The Nature of photography is founded upon the pose.
