Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into hand of traditional land owner Vincent Lingiari, Northern Territory
1975
It was during his tenure at the Department of Aboriginal Affairs that Mervyn Bishop covered the historic occasion at Wattie Creek on 16 August 1975 when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam poured Daguragu soil into the hand of Gurindji elder and traditional land owner, Vincent Lingiari. This photograph, which has become an icon of the land rights movement in Australia, is not a document of the exact moment from history, but rather a recreation of it a short while afterwards, in a location that allowed the photographer to capture the spirit of the moment more fully. Bishop has noted that he moved the two leaders into the sun so that the sky behind them, and the red earth offered an immediate sense of place, and the composition alludes to the passing of sand through an hourglass, as well as the symbolic returning of land to the hands of traditional owners.
(2023)
Chromogenic prints are printed on paper that has at least three emulsion layers containing invisible dyes and silver salts. Each emulsion layer is sensitive to a different primary colour of light (red, green or blue). The development process converts the hidden dyes to visible colour depending on the amount of light it was exposed to. This type of paper is commonly used to print from colour negatives or digital files to produce a full-colour image. It can also be used to print black-and-white images, giving softer grain and less contrast than gelatin silver prints. Commonly known as c-type prints, chromogenic processing was developed in the 1940s and widely used for colour printing, including for domestic snapshots. While recent years have seen this process accompanied by ink-jet and digital printing technologies, chromogenic printing still remains in use to this day.
