Samoa
1890s
Albumen print
6 × 8 in. (15.2 × 20.3 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Santa Barbara, CA
Thomas Andrew (1854–1939) was among the most prolific photographers working in Samoa during the late 19th century, producing portraits and landscape views that remain a primary visual record of the islands in that period. This albumen print depicts a Samoan woman reclining against a fiber ground, wearing a shell lei and fiber skirt, her direct gaze and relaxed posture distinguishing the composition from the more formal standing portraits typical of colonial studio work. The image dates to the 1890s, the height of Andrew's Samoan output.
The composition is horizontal and closely framed, with the textured fiber material filling much of the background and foreground, softening the studio context. Andrew's handling of light and tone across the figure demonstrates the technical control that characterized his best portraiture. The warm tonal range of the albumen surface and the preservation of fine detail in the jewelry and fabric place this among the more accomplished examples of 19th-century Pacific photography.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Samoa
1890s
Albumen print
6 × 8 in. (15.2 × 20.3 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Santa Barbara, CA
Thomas Andrew (1854–1939) was among the most prolific photographers working in Samoa during the late 19th century, producing portraits and landscape views that remain a primary visual record of the islands in that period. This albumen print depicts a Samoan woman reclining against a fiber ground, wearing a shell lei and fiber skirt, her direct gaze and relaxed posture distinguishing the composition from the more formal standing portraits typical of colonial studio work. The image dates to the 1890s, the height of Andrew's Samoan output.
The composition is horizontal and closely framed, with the textured fiber material filling much of the background and foreground, softening the studio context. Andrew's handling of light and tone across the figure demonstrates the technical control that characterized his best portraiture. The warm tonal range of the albumen surface and the preservation of fine detail in the jewelry and fabric place this among the more accomplished examples of 19th-century Pacific photography.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
