Picturing the "other:" visual representations of the South Pacific

Abstract

This analysis compares the approach by two photographers who have both worked in the South Pacific region but who are separated by a 50-year timeframe. Jack Fields was a photographer who spent much of his life with his writer-wife, Dorothy, freelancing throughout the region in the magazine era of the 1950s-1980s. Amy Toensing recently photographed her 14th story for National Geographic, where she has been a regular contributor for more than a decade. Their distinctive approaches offer insight to how photojournalism has changed in respect to cultural photography and how both photographers have used outlets of their day to present work directly to viewers independent of the magazine publications with which they typically worked.