Photographs
Guidelines for Exhibitors of Photographs at the Royal Anthropological Institute
The RAI welcomes occasional photographic exhibitions in its meeting room on the first floor at 50 Fitzroy Street.
The room is well lit, and with the frames available (suitable for images up to 50 x 40 cm), can accommodate up to 35 images, with frames hung above one another. Exhibitors wishing to use larger frames will need to supply them themselves.
Exhibitors will need to demonstrate a coherent and purposeful narrative for their work, which should relate clearly to the discipline of anthropology. They should supply a letter of endorsement from a supervisor or other suitable source.
All proposals will be considered by the RAI Photo Committee, and their decisions are final.
The costs of printing must be borne by exhibitors.
Please note that visitors to exhibitions will need to make an appointment since the room is sometimes in use. There is no disabled access.
For any further information please contact the Photo Curator archives@therai.org.uk
Imagi/Nations: Native North American Photographs from the Royal Anthropological Institute
Curated by Max Carocci
Images of Native North Americans part of a little known collections such as the ones of the RAI, offer a rare glimpse into the visual history of indigenous North American nations (Canadian First Nations, Native Americans, Inuit).
The exhibition presents a selection of 35 photographs from the RAI's photographic archives that cover areas as different as early physical anthropology, visual records of material culture, as well as social and cultural life of Native North Americans between the 19th c. and the early decades of the 20th c. Collections include images of peoples from Greenland and the Pacific Northwest coast, the Southwest USA, Canadian Great Lakes, the Great Plains and the Eastern woodlands.
You can see the exhibition online here and download a copy of the exhibition catalogue.
Copies of all of the prints in this exhibition are available for purchase. Contact the photo curator.
A selection of photographs from Glynn Flood’s fieldwork among Afar pastoralists
To mark the publication: In Pursuit of Afar Nomads. Glynn Flood's Work Journal and Letters from the Field, 1973 – 1975
Forty-four years after his death at the hands of the military government of Ethiopia, Glynn Flood’s ethnographic estate, based on fieldwork among Afar pastoralists, is now available in a publication (also online) of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale. Michèle Flood provided her husband’s ethnographic material, while Jean Lydall and Maknun Ashami compiled the book of Flood’s journals and letters, with a CD of indexed scans of the original journals, letters, and field notes.
The photos begin at Asaita, capital of Aussa: dusty tracks, the mosque, and the market on the main square which was taking place each Tuesday. The landscape changes according to the rainy (flooding) or dry season (cracked soil) and many stones (sort of volcanic basalt). Cotton plantations have now been replaced by sugar cane.
The photo of the bridge is meant to establish the link between this and the camps.
Fodaho is the name of the camp where Glynn had his tent; life at the camp is represented with Hassooni, Fatuma, Wassila, Ahmed (Fatuma's husband who was later killed by an oryx).and other young Afar men and women around the main characters, who fetch water, churn milk, braid hair, build a tent, file an axe, keep goats, show a guile (Afar knife)
Gaali Faage is the name of another camp in a desert area.
Kosov is the name given to this rather violent game of football where Afar men run after a cloth ball at special times of the year.
Photographic Exhibitions at the Royal Anthropological Institute
The RAI has occasional photographic exhibitions in its meeting room on the 1st floor at 50 Fitzroy Street.
If you are interested in proposing an exhibition please see the guidelines for exhibitors.
Past exhibitions
Imagi/Nations: Native North American Photographs from the Royal Anthropological Institute
The Body Canvas Photography Exhibition
Historic imagery and the RAI: Lord Moyne’s engagement with the Asmat of Dutch New Guinea 1929–1936
Fieldwork: Anthropology in Action Around the World
A Tale of Two Rivers: The Lower Wye and the Nubian Nile
[Re:]Entanglements: The Photographs of N.W. Thomas
Mirdu Rai: How Do I Bring You Home?
Imaging the Field: Sketches and Drawings from the RAI Archives
GRID – anthropometric photographs and potential history
Haddon and the Aran Islands: the beginning of visual anthropology
Abercrombie; Arkell; Hambley; Hobley; Melland - Africa
Africa - archaeology
Aiyappam; Crooke; Ghoshal; Rogers - India, Nicobar & Andaman Islands; Malay peninsula
Amer; Arundel; Balfour; Dundas; Huntingford; Johnston; Leith; Parker - Africa
Annandale - S.E. Africa
Anthropometric portraits
Auden - Europe; England; France;
Australia
Ballantine; O’Mally - PNG
Barton - PNG; Oceania
Bell, Codrington - Oceania; New Hebrides
Benthall; Rivers; Wilkins - India, Tibet, Algeria
Berndt - Australia
Bonaparte – Sámi people (Lapps)
Bonaparte - Australia anthropology; India
Breton - North & South America
Brit. Assoc. Racial Committee / Europe
Buckner; Cadett; Harris; Hurd; Mannering - Africa; physical anthropology
Budgett Meakin – Morocco
De Cesnola - Cypriot antiquities
Cohen; Cooper Clark; Doke; Driberg; Ellerbeck; Evans Pritchard; Fergison; Flinders Petrie; Hulley; Lamina; Mason; Murnay; Paff; Parker; Priest; Read; Reece; Rogers; Singer; Taylor; Wamelo; Webb – Africa
Cunnison – Africa
Dawson – Canada
Dayrell - Nigeria
Daniel; Henry; Knocker; Price - SE Asia
Deacon; Haddon; Lord Moyne - PNG
Dobson - Andaman Islands
Duckworth - Europe
Durham - S.E. Europe Albania
E. Africa; Egypt; Ethiopia; Sudan;
S.M. Edwards – India
Ellenberger; Dayrell - S. Africa
European archaeology
Flinders Petrie - Egyptian antiquities
Garbe; Whiffen - Central & South America; Ecuador
Gluckmann - Africa; Zambia
Grubb - S. America
Hanna - India
Harvey - (Cambridge Expedition), Japan (1964)
Hilton Simpson
Hodson - Oceania
Hodson, Naga - SE Asia
Ilford Research Dept.
Im Thurn - S.C. America
Johnstone & Hoffman; Waddell - S. Asia
Knox - rock paintings
Layard - Africa
Lichtenicker; Tate - Africa
Lindt - Australia
Lister - Oceania; Tonga
E.H. Man - Andaman & Nicobar Islands
McGeagh - Africa
Miller; Thomas – Nigeria
Mills - Fiji; New Hebrides; New Zealand; Oceania; PNG; Sarawak
Murray - South Africa
Myres - Africa; RAI
Neverovsky - Angola albums
Parham; Roth; Strong - Oceania; Banks Islands; Fiji; Murray Islands; Solomon Islands
Parkinson – Liberia
Peake, Beazley; Peek, Hills - S. Asia; India; Ceylon; Sri Lanka
Pearson - Madrid album; Spain
Petersen - Skulls
Physical anthropology; Skulls
Portman, Maurice Vidal
Price, Leveson - Asia; China
Prof. Dark exhibition – PNG
Randall McIver - Africa; Melanesia
Rattray - Europe (England) archaeology
Raymond; Roscoe; Sharpe - Africa; Congo; South Africa; Sudan
Richards, A. - Africa
Rikards - Mexican antiquities Antigua
Schapera collection – Africa
Seligman - Japan; Munro
Seligman - Sudan
Seton-Karr – Africa
Smith - N. America
Somerville - Solomons, Malekula
Starr – Mexico
Starr, Thurston – Mexico
Tirstig - Sudan
Thurston - S. India
Townshend - N. America (Hopi)
Torday, E. - Africa
Tucker – Africa
Turstig; Palmer; Peake. - British Association Racial Committee / Africa; Kenya; South Africa
Verril - comparative archaeology
White, Thomas - S. Arabia, Zimbabwe
Williamson - Batwa Pygmies 1905, Oceania
Wilkins - Algeria, Egypt