Febi girls watching a Polaroid image of themselves emerge

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Photographer: David R. Eastburn, 1949-

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This photograph was taken at the Bulong longhouse, 142. 19 E. 5. 49 S. Universal grid reference 54M XU454573 (1: 100 000 Karoma map sheet 7386). Photographer's note: A Polaroid SX-70 camera provided ‘on-the-spot’ images of people or events. The liberal supply of gifts of prints was an effective ‘public relations’ tool. The emergence of the polaroid image also appealed to the ‘dramatic’, which Niuginians enjoyed. As the prints were sealed in their individual ‘frame’, they were also quite durable in a humid climate. Polaroid images (and booklets containing photos of Southern highlanders) provided to Febi visitors to Koroba early in 1979 were revealed when I visited Bulong longhouse in December 1979. They were wrapped in tapa cloth along with other valuables, such as bird of paradise feathers, and stored in the rafters of the longhouse.

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Archives Series

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1979

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