I am working on two major projects funded by the Australian Research Council

Album of P. Kossen, ‘Cleansing action on the way to Pijoengan [Piyungan], 26 April 1949’ . Image Bank WWII, NIOD, Amsterdam, A5683.

Album of P. Kossen, ‘Cleansing action on the way to Pijoengan [Piyungan], 26 April 1949’ . Image Bank WWII, NIOD, Amsterdam, A5683.

Decolonisation and photography in Southeast Asia: Histories and legacies

[FT200100597, 2021-6]

This project aims to investigate the untold history of decolonisation in Southeast Asia through amateur soldier photographs taken on the front line of conflicts. Such photographs constitute a vast yet neglected archive that promises unique insights into encounters between combatants on all sides, and with civilians whose experiences have rarely been accessible, particularly women, children and unfree workers. The expected outcomes of this project are to produce new understandings of violence in decolonisation and the long-term legacies of colonialism in Southeast Asia. This project also intends to provide a critical historical framework for understanding the meaning and impact of photographs taken in war.

 
Album of F. Broekstra, Surabaya. Watching the eruption of Gunung Bromo (Java), c. 1954. Collection Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen. Collection no. TM-30023113 (ALB-2207).

Album of F. Broekstra, Surabaya. Watching the eruption of Gunung Bromo (Java), c. 1954. Collection Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen. Collection no. TM-30023113 (ALB-2207).

Disaster, human suffering and Colonial photography

[DP170100948, 2017–19]

This project aims to investigate how photography shaped modern understandings of disaster. During the period modern European empires were at their most expansive, they became increasingly interventionist in indigenous environments and societies. The project will use rich but largely neglected sources from colonial Indonesia (c.1840-1950) to study how images of human suffering in different disaster contexts evolved since the invention of photography. Understanding how and why European expansion shaped modern ideas about disasters, and how photography has developed to communicate human suffering, is expected to benefit community and scholarly awareness of environmental disaster, war and their effects.