The Englishman Francis Herbert Dufty arrived in Levuka in early 1871, the year that the government of "King" Cakobau was established there. He set up a new studio next door to Fiji Times office on May 24 1871 and was joined in this enterprise by his brother Alfred after his arrival in December of that year. It should be acknowledged that theirs was not the first photographic studio to be set up in Levuka: apart from a couple of 1869 visiting photographers, A S Levinski had opened his new studio on April 26 1871, but was apparently unable to withstand the competition offered by the Dufty brothers, and soon dropped out of the trade, though continuing to live on in Levuka [Fiji Times research by Mark & Geoff Hamilton, pers.comm.Feb 2008]. It should also be remembered that Griffiths, founder of the Fiji Times, was a capable photographer himself, producing many of the images he printed in his newspaper, and also a line of postcards of scenery and of Fijians.

During the two decades that followed its setting up, the Dufty studio prospered, and their premises were substantially extended. The brothers produced studio portraits, landscape photographs and a large body of "cartes de visite", which had been popularised in Europe in the mid-19th Century. They photographed Missionaries, European settlers, the Fijian hierarchy that naturally gravitated to this centre of power, and even the Mountaineers or Kai Colo. This last group presented the most stubborn resistance to Christianisation, and to first Cakobau's government, and then following Cession in 1874 the British Colonial Government.

While the wet-plate technology of the day meant that virtually all of these photographs were studio setups, they nonetheless comprise a fascinating document of the most dramatic episode of change in the history of Fiji. The "ethnographic" photographs used a range of "props" that he assembled for the purpose, so one finds the same weapons and body-ornaments recurring with different bearers. However, the ridiculous combinations of gear found in later photographs are absent here - the "genuine article" was still visible all around, and there was no reason to diverge from authenticity. Later, ignorance was to combine with the layers of myth and fantasy that had developed, and during the first half of the Twentieth Century many outlandish confections masqueraded as ethnographic photographs. The Dufty pictures are, therefore, of great value.

Alfred Dufty left Levuka for Suva in 1884, followed by Francis (Frank) in 1885. They left Fiji for Melbourne in 1887 and 1892 respectively. Mrs Joy Fegent of Sydney, granddaughter of Alfred, has provided me with the following postscript to their Fiji careers. Francis (Frank) was apparently unable to repeat his Fiji success as a photographer in Melbourne, and died there at the age of 64. Alfred had a newsagent and stationery shop in Melbourne for a few years, during which time he acted as agent for several Fijian businesses. He subsequently removed to Sydney with his large family (six sons), and in 1905 resumed his career as a photographer, setting up a Marine Photography Studio in Erskine Street that he ran very successfully for the next twenty years until the year of his death at the age of 68, 1924. His son took over the business on his father's retirement and ran it for a further five years.

         

The small selection from Dufty's oeuvre depicted here are in my own collection. For the generous gift of most of these I am deeply indebted to Virginia Marlow, daughter of another pre-eminent photographic chronicler of Fiji and Fijians, and a personal friend of my family, Rob Wright. These pictures originally formed part of his personal collection. Some of them were reproduced in my book "Fijian Artefacts: the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection", Hobart, TMAG, 1982 (out of print but copies still available from me on request.)

I have provided brief descriptive notes, but have not attempted a detailed analysis of the historical/anthropological importance of the photographs. This has been undertaken by others, notably Brigitte d'Ozouville in two very useful papers in 1997: "F.H.Dufty in Fiji, 1871-1892. The social role of a colonial photographer." History of Photography 21(1):32-42, and "Reading photographs in colonial history: a case study from Fiji, 1872." Pacific Studies 20(4): 51-76. There are brief biographies of the Dufty brothers in The Cyclopedia of Fiji (1907, reprinted Fiji Museum 1984), on pages 222 and 266.

Several images by the Duftys that are not illustrated here can be seen on the Fiji Museum Online's Glass Plate Negatives Virtual Exhibition. Also, a group of cartes de visite from the John Etkins Collection in the State Library of Victoria are reproduced on http://www.pictureaustralia.com/ (go to Advanced Search, and type Dufty into the Photos By panel).

© Feb 2008, Roderick Ewins

Ratu Seru Cakobau, Vuniivalu of Bau, Tui Viti, at about the time he and a group of other powerful chiefs ceded Fiji to Britain in 1874.	Ratu Seru Cakobau wears a copious, red-brown Tongan ngatu. In Fiji this cloth is associated with chiefs and sacred uses. He catches it with a white barkcloth cummerbund (i-oro) and holds another chiefly symbol, a fan (iri), in this case feather-trimmed (vakavuti).	Unidentified chief wearing loose barkcloth, skirt i-sulu, and holding the chiefly symbol flywhisk (i-roi).
Unidentified chief with child. Elder wears barkcloth, chiefly smoked headscarf (i-sala) and loose skirt i-sulu, and holds a chief's iri masei fan	Unidentified young woman wearing tobe "virgin plaits", today only found in a couple of islands of the Lau Group. These plaits would have been cut off by her husband at the time of her wedding.	"Big head" mountain men (kai colo), wearing wigs of human hair (ulumate). These warriors were justifiaby feared by their coastal neighbours, who retaliated by stigmatising their name to mean "bushwhackers". The men pictured here wear only malo loincloths. The seated men wear pigs' tusks (bati ni vuaka). The standing man wears a civa pearl-shell and holds a rootstock club with a fibre-bound handle (waka vividrasa). (See Ewins 1982 pp.34-36)
Warrior (qaqa) with a battleaxe (i-teba). He wears his i-oro cummerbund high, sign of challenge, has a wabale sash. His skirt (liku) and vesa leg flounces are of black vine (waloa). His warrior status emphasised with a fine boar's tusk (bati ni vuaka). (See Ewins 1982 pp.25, 47).	Warrior (qaqa) with a straight pole club (gadi). He wears his i-oro cummerbund high, sign of challenge, has a wabale sash. His skirt (liku) and vesa leg flounces are of black vine (waloa).His warrior status emphasised with a fine boar's tusk (bati ni vuaka). (See Ewins 1982 pp.25, 47). He appears to be wearing a two-toned wig.	Warrior (qaqa) wearing much barkcloth: a skirt (i-sulu), i-oro cummerbund, wabale sash and vesa arm flounces. His warrior status emphasised with a native cock feather (vuti ni toa tagane) and boar's tusk (bati ni vuaka). He holds a kiakavo footsoldier's "standard" club.
Native of Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati) wearing traditional armour [shirt and trousers woven from coconut twine (sinnet), a front- and back-shield, and puffer-fish helmet] and holding a sharks'-tooth sword.	Solomon Islanders.

Ratu Timoci (no other name) wears a chiefly red-brown smoked barkcloth headscarf (i-sala kuvui) and wabale shoulder-sash, and a masi barkcloth cummerbund (i-oro), but his i-sulu skirt seems to be a tasselled Western cloth, perhaps a counterpane.	2. Photo-cards These cards resemble the cartes de visite in size and appearance, but are printed on the back and have square, rather than rounded, corners. They are possibly of an earlier date than at least some of the CDVs, since as discussed below they appear to have been printed in late 1874 to early 1875.	Unidentified women wearing smocks and skirts, the one on the left holding an elaborately bound book (presumably a bible) and the other a posy of flowers. Their dress, demeanour and the book proclaim them as Christians, and probably of high birth.
Unidentified young woman wearing masi barkcloth and holding i-iri buli fan	Unidentified girl wearing a dance skirt of dyed and pleated strips of vau bark (Hibiscus tileaceus).	Unidentified young woman wearing white masi barkcloth sash (wabale) and skirt (isulu) elaborate hair andear ornaments.
Warrior (qaqa) with a straight pole club (gadi). He wears his i-oro cummerbund high, sign of challenge, has a wabale sash. His skirt (liku) is of black vine (waloa), his warrior status emphasised with a fine boar's tusk (bati ni vuaka). (See Ewins 1982 pp.25, 47).	Levuka township, at that time the capital of Fiji, Ovalau Island. Mission Hill rises on the right in the centre of the picture.	Back of the cards, which reads: UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF HIS EXCELLENCY SIR HERCULES ROBINSON KCMG GOVERNOR OF NEW SOUTH WALES F.H.DUFTY'S ROYAL VICTORIAN STUDIO LEVUKA, OVALAU, FIJI ...COPIES MAY BE HAD BY FORWARDING NAME AND NUMBER. The invoking of Sir Hercules dates this as having been printed during the period of his interim stewardship of Fiji following Cession in 1874 and prior to the arrival of the Governor designate, Sir Arthur Gordon, in 1875.