IDNO

P.9255.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: “View on Upper Amazon near Issa river”.

View from river towards forest on banks.

Place

S America; Colombia; North West Amazon; near Putumayo River; Issa Valley; Amazon River [Iça River; Issa River]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

?Whiffen, Thomas William

Collector / Expedition

Date

?1908 - 1909

Collection Name

Mounted Haddon CollectionWhiffen Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: Reproduced in Whiffen, T. W., 1915 as Pl. IV with the caption “River view on main stream near Issa River”.

Related Image: A duplicate print is at the RAI, reference 36198, was in an envelope, together with photographs of similar scenes, and annotated by Whiffen’s as “Typical photographs of the Upper Amazon Issa & Japura Rivers”.
Photocopies of Whiffen prints at the RAI are in the UCMAA archive, reference W19/1/3. See Whiffen Collection record for further details on RAI collection. [TC 09/06/1999, updated JD 02/10/2019]

Bibliographical Reference: Although this river scene may seem innocuous, Whiffen describes the great discomfort and unease which such surroundings caused him. In his opinion, "travelling in the bush is a dreary monotony of discomfort and ever-present danger" (Whiffen, T. W., 1915: 14). He describes the rivers with their surrounding forests and his journeys along them at length (ibid: 17-39), but primarily finds these surroundings malevolent. He describes "a gruesome depression which is almost physical" (ibid: 35) that is induced by the solitute of a river island and sees the mass of forest vegetation as "a horrible, a most evil-disposed enemy" (ibid: 36).

See also similar description and additional information on catalogue card for lantern slide.