The eyes of Peter and Georgina Bowater on Papua
February 25th, 2011
On the forecourt of the Grimaldi Forum, the photographic evidence of people across the world, rites millennia, surprise
Almost by chance, Peter & Georgina Bowater have photographs of art, without knowing it. This pair of English at the Grimaldi Forum presents “Perspectives on Papua New Guinea,” a series of pictures taken on these lands in the early 70s. At the time, Peter Bowater had been sent in Oceania to develop agriculture projects in the region via the UN. “With my wife, we first had the idea to photograph these birds of paradise there. Then we looked at people who follow the same rituals for over 4000 years. ”
And the couple confesses: “We were very naive. With this Western view that the primitive tribes are inferior to us. While in this land, we met people from a rare intelligence and we had a lot to learn from them. ”
Fragments of culture (s)
During the three years in New Guinea, the objective of Bowater took snapshots of that culture. A series of photographs – color and black and white – as soon checked into their drawers. These small emerge from the shadows for almost 40 years later, and have not aged a bit large to be exhibited and outdoors on the porch at the Grimaldi Forum. Striking images that show the imprint of ancient rituals in a culture and among men who sometimes try incursions (risky?) Attributes of Western culture. We smile at this face such tribal chief, fully feathered headdress and jewelry of local shoe on his nose a pair of Ray-Ban. Or the man who adds his headdress a photo of Elizabeth Taylor torn pages of a magazine.
“We learned in Papua more than what we gave these people,” said Peter Bowater. Besides these pictures anecdotal, the entire force of the rite and make-up makes sense. To evoke the dead (smearing the face of mud when a bereavement), stages of life or the transfer of authority. Pictures taken almost “accidentally” by the couple Bowater become anthropological elements. An exhibition that is worth the trip … and look!