The Upolu sunk off Shantung Promontory after a collision on the 12th of August 1930. The photographic images here are taken from the Upolu, as can be inferred from the itinerary and the structure to be seen on the right of the picture plane.
While Smith's skill as a photographer is limited, he has taken charge of the stenopic view afforded by the camera. The Steamer is a specific vantage point from which to capture the scene. These photographs are surely a subset of the cluster taken by Smith. Does the materiality of the book extend into film forensics? Questions about extant copies, sequences and alterations via insertion into 'Reminiscences of a Surveyor' reveal the material pre-conditions of the object of our study. The photographic forensics also lay a material path to a better understanding of the illustrations, but more interestingly provide a pinpoint trace of the movement of S Percy Smith through the time and space of his voyage. Imagine the pattern of photographic images mapped chronologically in island-like clusters. |