iles, arthur

Arthur Iles appears to have been rehabilated. Once a colonial imperialist dominating rheistic male gaze, his images (ca 1901?) are now appropriated back to their subjects. The smiling girl features on the cover of a recent book "Out of Time Maori and the Photographer 1860 -1940 The Ngawini Cooper Trust Collection" .
The unsmiling girl featured in a 1970 book "Polynesian Beauty" which was a totally objectionable, naf, sexist, pornographic collection. She remains in her own space, in her kiwi feather cloak and moko, as she gazed from my Freemans Bay room wall.


Alexander Turnbull Library Wellington






larger versions at
gbrun77
flickr
Iles