Re-framing Indigenous Australian photography: Meaning and materiality of Christian Thompson’s ‘In Search of the International Look

Abstract

This article extends visual anthropological concerns into a new subject area that of contemporary Indigenous Australian photography. It presents what could be described as an ethnography of one artistic photograph created by artist Christian Thompson, taking into account both the work's intended meanings and its materiality. 'Unpacking' the ways in which an Aboriginal artist constructs potentially new cultural forms through the visual, I argue that an anthropological study of Indigenous photographic art is significant for two reasons: it produces new anthropological knowledge about processes of Aboriginal cultural production, and it offers unique insights vital to understanding an art form predominantly analysed by art historians.