PAPUA NEW GUINEA HIGHLANDS, 1930s. 181 Silver gelatin print photographs, 1930-1934, most 4 x 5 i...

PAPUA NEW GUINEA HIGHLANDS, 1930s. 181 Silver gelatin print photographs, 1930-1934, most 4 x 5 inches, affixed to re-purposed logbook, many trimmed and joined to form panoramas, each with typewritten number and title, each numbered in pen on verso, tape to verso of most photographs, some with paste action, some detached from album, 1 photo split, several with creases and a few with some skinning, album with covers chipped and detached. Provenance: 'Capt. Lavitt'? in pencil on upper cover. PHOTO ALBUM CHRONICLING THE LEAHY BROTHERS EXPEDITIONS. 'We realized then that it was not the Ramu and that we had discovered a totally new country. This land was populated by tens of thousands of Stone Age natives, whose village fires at night extended in the distance as far as the eye could see across the grass valleys and ranges' —Leahy, Michael J. Explorations into Highland New Guinea, 1930-1935. Tuscaloosa & London: University of Alabama press, [1991], pp 9-10. The present album chronicles Michael 'Mick' Leahy's expeditions into the Papua New Guinea Highlands in search of gold. He and his party, which included his brothers James, Daniel and Patrick, Michael Dwyer and others were often the first white men seen by the native population of the area and were thought at first to be spirit-ancestors returning from the place of the dead. The expeditions became widely known after Michael Leahy published an article and 2 books on his experiences. Leahy brought cameras to document his journeys and illustrated his books with these powerful images although many of his photographs were not published. It was not until the early 1980s that we learned the Leahys had also brought motion picture cameras with them when Australian filmmakers Bob and Robin Anderson made a series of documentaries about the Papua New Guinea Highlands. Their film First Contact, about the Leahy expeditions and their impact on the area, incorporated Leahy's film footage with interviews of native survivors as well as Daniel and James Leahy. The present album seems to have been collected by someone in the U.S Army as it incorporates file leaves from the Quartermaster Corps. The typed identification slips below each image also provide evidence of an informed owner, possibly an acquaintance of the Leahy's. Photographs include multi-photograph panoramas of the landscape, portraits of the native inhabitants from numerous villages that demonstrate the variation in dress and custom, images showing the Leahy brothers and their party, village scenes, etc. A rich treasure trove of powerful images that should be examined. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing