Complete Issue Online - San Diego History Center

The Journal of San Diego History
newspapers (only to find out the war had ended), he stayed on in the nation’s capital
to experience the impoverished citizens of London’s East End. Photographers
are voyeurs at heart and London’s early work in the East End shows how the
progressive movement (London’s political left) had moved on from the issue of
slavery to England’s workhouses of the early 20th century.
London’s camera accompanied him and his wife, Charmian, to the South Pacific
on his custom built ship, The Snark. The content of these photographs changed
dramatically from street documentary (London’s East End) and war reportage
(Russo-Japanese War) to a much lighter, vacation-snapshot style. These particular
photographs are those of a tourist with an ethnographic gaze, where photographer
and South Pacific islanders are strangers in a primitive headhunter, non-white
world. On a trip to an island market, Charmian is photographed packing a small
caliber side arm. London, hoping to use the photograph for publication, must later
defend the snapshot of his wife to publishers who do not believe the photograph
is of good taste for western consumption. London reprimanded his publisher,
explaining that his photographs and his writings have only one purpose: to
reveal the truth. By the end of his written rant, he shouts to his publisher that, “he
[London] is glad he is in the South Pacific; and his publisher in North America.”
Another example of London’s desire to present an unvarnished account of the
South Seas for western consumption is a beautiful, full-length portrait of “Nature
Man” Ernest Darling. Darling as described by London “was an inspiring though
defeated figure.” Darling’s portrait, if covered only to reveal his face, reminds
me of a “hippie” type figure of the late sixties and early seventies. I am sure
Darling would have been as comfortable walking around “Haight-Ashbury” in
San Francisco as he was on the South Pacific island of Tahiti in 1907.
The exhibit of fifty of London’s photographs was successfully presented by the
Maritime Museum of San Diego in the lower hold of The Star of India. The digital
prints made for the exhibit have more contrast and are a bit sharper than the prints
reproduced in the book. London’s camera work as professionally hung made it
possible for viewers to understand how “f/8 and being there” is the essence of
the craft of photography.
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