# 46142
WALTER, Charles (Carl) (1831-1907) (attributed)
Two stereoscopic views taken in Samoa, 1875.
$350.00 AUD
Two stereoscopic albumen print photographs, each image approximately 80 x 80 mm (square format), on original black card mounts, 85 x 176 mm, versos blank; the prints are a little pale, but are otherwise in good condition.
This pair of Samoan stereoviews came as part of a small group of stereographic photographs by German-born Victorian photographer and naturalist Charles (Carl) Walter dating to the late 1860s and early 1870s. All were printed on the same black mounts – not Walter’s customary yellow mounts with printed labels; however, among the other subjects were some of Walter’s most famous images, recording the missions to the Aborigines in Gippsland and whaling activities at Eden.
While Walter’s portraits of Aboriginal people at Coranderrk and his stereoscopic views of Victoria are familiar and celebrated images, a part of his career that is not so well documented is his participation in an expedition to the Bismarck Archipelago in 1875, on which he accompanied Methodist missionary Rev. George Brown on a voyage to New Ireland via Fiji and Samoa in the John Wesley. Walter was in Samoa for over three months during the second half of 1875, which is undoubtedly when these two stereoscopic photographs were taken. One is an idyllic fishing scene near a waterfall, and the other a group portrait of a large assembly of Samoan children.
It would seem that very few of Walter’s photographs from the 1875 John Wesley voyage have survived: none, at least, can be traced in Australian institutional collections, although it is of course possible that there are extant examples which have never been identified due to their being uncaptioned and devoid of context.