An Interlude in Iraq: The Photographs and Diaries of Australian Photographer Frank Hurley in the Catalogues of the National Library of Australia

摘要

The daily life of the Marsh Arabs of Iraq, and their puzzlingly positive reaction to the British presence in Iraq in 1944, are recorded in the photographs and diaries of Australian photographer Frank Hurley. Working for the British Ministry of Information, Hurley travelled through the marshes on the Ministry's "Showboat" in April 1944. His photographs pre-date Wilfrid Thesiger's photographic documentation of the Marsh Arabs by several years, and are a poignant record of their way of life before their homeland was drained by the Iraqi government in the 1990s. Digital copies of the photographs and diaries are available on the web site of the National Library of Australia.