Picturing paradise: photographs of Samoan life and culture, 1875-1925.

• Author: Webb, Virginia-Lee

Photographers found Samoa and its extraordinary people to be a subject through which they could express their own ideas of "paradise."

THE ISLANDS of Samoa are located in the vast Pacific Ocean approximately 800 miles south of the equator and 1,700 miles north of New Zealand. Samoa has nine permanently inhabited islands, divided politically as Western Samoa and American Samoa.

Western Samoa consists of the islands Savai'i, Upolu, Manono, and Apolima. Germany ruled from 1899 to 1914, setting up plantations and shipping industries. New Zealand took over in 1914, and the islands became a United Nations Trusteeship in 1945. Western Samoa became a fully independent nation in 1962.

American Samoa includes the islands Tutuila, Olosega, Ofu, Ta'u, Aunu'u, Rose, and Swains. It was ruled by local people until about 1860. The German, English, and American governments had joint administrative powers there between 1889 and 1899. In 1899, the islands were granted to the U.S. as territories by treaty.

Samoa first was seen by European explorers in the 18th century. In the 19th century, Christian missionaries were sent to build settlements and churches. Next came representatives from Germany, England, and America, who set up the colonial economy. Some traveled to Samoa for business; others settled in the warm islands to escape the cold, harsh winters of the Northern Hemisphere.

The beauty of the Samoan landscape proved a continual fascination for colonial photographers. The studio run by Charles Henry Kerry in Sydney, Australia, produced many exterior views. Kerry, like other 19th-century studio owners, hired contract photographers to travel the world. In 1890, George Bell took many of the Samoan images published by Kerry.

New Zealander John Davis often utilized the landscape, ocean, and the vessels used to navigate it as a subject. Among the very few details known about Davis are that he served as postmaster in Western Samoa's capital, Apia, during the 1870s and probably established a photography studio there around 1873, the first in Samoa. Davis' business thrived and, in 1886, he hired fellow New Zealander Alfred John Tattersall to assist him.

Tattersall shot hundreds of landscape and river views. After Davis' death, Tattersall acquired his negatives and continued to print from them for many years. Photographic postcards were a successful part of his business, with some produced in Samoa and others sent to large German postcard printing firms in Dresden...