Francis Herbert Dufty (1846-1910) . Important Photography . Fiji Islands .. Pacific

25-year-old Englishman Francis Herbert Dufty arrives in Levuka . town located on the east coast of the island of Ovalau . in the Fiji Islands . in early 1871 he ran a successful traveling photographic business . on May 24, 1871 he set up a new studio next to the offices of the Fiji Times . his brother Alfred William Buchanan joined him . the Dufty studio prospers and the premises expand . they make many studio portraits and landscape photographs .. their photographic process uses wet collodion technology which is difficult to move .. so the Dufty's images are of great value. they are a fascinating document of a time when probably the most dramatic changes in the history of the Fiji Islands were taking place ..

dimensions of sight photograph approx. 28/20 cm
framed and glazed (hence certain reflections) . .