Introduction

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In January 1988, I took a trip to Europe in which I met up with my cousin Len, his wife Rogelene and daughter Michaela. The aim of first part of the trip was to spend a few days with them skiing in the Italian Alps and then a couple of weeks travelling in northern Italy, mainly Tuscany together.

The aim of the second part of the trip was to spend a few weeks pursuing my own interests, visiting Swiss and Italian museums mainly looking at ethnographic and photographic collections, particularly their storage and retrieval methods. At the time I was working at the Australian Museum, photographing ethnographic collections and interested in photographic history.

It was bit difficult organising everything, selecting clothing for the snow and European winter while Sydney was experiencing temperatures in the mid-30s.

I took with me an open introductory letter from Lissant Bolton, Pacific Collections Manager at the Australian Museum, which I hoped would assist with gaining access to museum collections and staff.

I had also just completed a contract for photographing around 50 artefacts for a print catalogue to accompany the Pieces of Paradise exhibition at the Australian Museum. The day before I left, I finally received printer’s proofs of the Pieces of Paradise catalogue and carefully cut the large sheets into pages to mock up into a book.

Combined with the letter of introduction, the catalogue proved invaluable in establishing credibility, gaining the confidence of European museum staff and  accessing their collections. In some cases, I was also able to assist them accurately identify the origins of some of the Pacific artefacts within their own collections.

Ricoh TF500

As a photographer, I took along quite a bit of equipment; two Nikon SLR camera bodies with a selection of lenses stuffed into a huge (and heavy camera bag) and a Ricoh point-and-shoot camera for casual photography.

Nikon FE2

As it turned out, I took almost all of the photos using the Ricoh as it was less obtrusive, quicker to use, could be carried in a pocket and was much lighter to carry than a fully-equipped camera bag. And the image quality was excellent.

I had also decided to use colour negative film rather than black & white or colour transparency film as the technology in colour negative film had improved, and had a wider exposure latitude particularly in low-light conditions.

As I began to prepare this account and scan the negatives, I realised some of the colour negative films have deteriorated in the past 30 years due to poor original processing in labs around Europe and Australia even though they were stored under suitable conditions. Some of the original postcard prints are actually in a better condition than the negatives!