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| THE NEW AMATEUR AT POINT ELLICE HOUSE The reception of the photograph and the usage of the image by the amateur photographer at Point Ellice House should also be examined. The association of the snapshot with memory remains a mainstay of snapshot advertising up to the present day, but what also emerges at this time is the recording of ideas. In the photograph of Kathleen and her father, Peter, it is evident that the photographer used the FPK No.3A to capture a memory. There are several images in the collection of the father and daughter together. The relationship between Kathleen and her father was strong. "This is my twenty-first birthday. I wish you were here to spend it with me…I have a pretty gold bangle with 1888 on it, which Mother says is my present from you and I send many thanks for it dear Father…1888" (Courtesy of BC Archives – Call Number MS0284 Box 45 File 7) In the photograph of Peter and Kathleen seated in the carriage, the camera has recorded their outing. Not only would the camera have captured the outing together as a fond memory, but the camera also records an event significant enough that the O’Reilly’s wished to capture it on film. Kathleen O’Reilly’s life was a blur of social events, dinner parties, picnics, riding her horse, "Blackie", across the countryside, boating parties, and dances at Government House. The idea of attending such events was a sign that she belonged to the high social circles in Victoria. Recording these occasions on film represents the idea that Kathleen O’Reilly wished to be presented in photographs as a member of Victorian high society. In the first decade, the amateur photographer at Point Ellice House had the time and the resources to become home based hobbyists. There is no evidence that the photography at Point Ellice House elevated beyond the second class amateur status. That personal photography has become family photography is itself an indication that the domestication of everyday life and the expansion of ‘the family’ pivoted around a century-long shift to a consumer-led, home-based economy. The twentieth-century consumer-led economy has shifted these new individuals away from a culture based on work and self-discipline to one based on gratification, which encourages us all to identify our pleasures in order to develop and refine them. Scanning personal pictures has become part of that act of self-contemplation. (Wells, p.109) |
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