Allan Baldwin
In Frame

  • New Zealand
  • en
  • en
  • 52'
Allan Baldwin | In Frame
Trailer Try 7 days free

Synopsis

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, photographer Allan Baldwin travelled across Aotearoa New Zealand, meeting and photographing elderly Māori women who wore the moko kauae, the traditional tattoo of the chin. At a time when this ancestral practice had become increasingly rare, his journeys resulted in a remarkable series of portraits.

Decades later, Allan Baldwin: In Frame returns to these photographs and meets the descendants of those who stood before Baldwin’s camera. The images take on a new significance. Beyond documenting faces or a tradition, they become traces of family histories, genealogies and a cultural memory that continues to be passed on.

Through Baldwin’s work, the film explores photography’s ability to preserve the presence of those who are gone, while tracing the transmission of moko, mana and Māori identity from one generation to the next.

What you will find in this film

Māori portraiture • The moko kauae tradition • Photography as an act of memory • Faces of a disappearing generation • Family histories through photographs • Cultural transmission • Māori identity and heritage • The power of the photographic archive

Keywords

Reportage & Society History of Photography Portrait & Aesthetics Photographic memory
It’s that moment that delivers the magic.
You’re trying to capture the essence of somebody that you’re photographing in a way that nobody else does.
Each photographer takes things differently, you know.
I made a habit to make sure that the family had a print of the photography I had done of their grandmothers or mothers.

Documentaries about photography, and about the people who make it. 
You can try it free for 7 days.

What you’ll find

Portraits of photographers, names everyone knows and others you’ll discover here. Films about street photography, war, fashion or portraiture, about printing and historical processes. About the trades of photography too. And then suggestions for going further, with Focuses, articles, interviews, bibliographies.

A small independent team

Documentaries about photography were rarely shown on television, and hardly at all on streaming platforms. We created The Darkroom Rumour to give them a place of their own. We are a small team, and we choose every film ourselves, with no school to defend.

Inspire your photography

In these films, you see photographers at work, in the field as well as in the darkroom. If you take pictures, you’ll often come away with an idea to try. If you simply like looking at images, you may start to see them differently.

How it works 

You can watch the films online, anywhere in the world, on a computer, tablet or phone, and on TV by mirroring your phone’s or computer’s screen. Every film is available in French and English, with no ads. New releases come out on Saturday or Sunday. The trial lasts 7 days, and if you stop before day 8, you pay nothing.

The Darkroom Rumour on a TV, a computer, a tablet and a phone
Start your free trial

The authors/artists

Allan Baldwin
Allan Baldwin
Photographer
Tearepa Kahi
Tearepa Kahi
Film Director
Alexander Behse
Alexander Behse
Producer

Further exploration

Selected bibliography

• Marti Friedlander and Michael King, Moko: Māori Tattooing in the 20th Century, David Bateman, 2008.

• Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Linda Waimarie Nikora et al., Mau Moko: The World of Māori Tattoo, University of Hawai‘i Press / Penguin Viking, 2007. Libraries

• Harry Sangl, Merimeri Penfold and D. R. Simmons, Te Kuia Moko: The Last Tattooed Māori Women, Oratia Books, 2020. Libraries

• Matt Calman and Ariana Tikao, Mokorua: Ngā kōrero mō tōku moko kauae – My Story of Moko Kauae, Auckland University Press, 2022 (in English and Maori).

• Lissa Mitchell, Through Shaded Glass: Women and Photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1860–1960, Te Papa Press, 2023. Publisher · Libraries

Online

Memento Mori: Memento Maori – Moko and Memory – Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, University of Waikato, working paper, 2009 – Free access.

Mai te Kōpū o te Wāhine: Considering Māori Women and Power – Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Pacific Studies, 2020 – Free access.

Moko Wahine: A Framework for Guiding and Nurturing Māori Women Leaders – Shonelle Wana, MAI Journal, 2022 – Free access.

I Wear My Pride upon My Skin: Becoming More of Who I Am – Hinekura Smith, Te Ira Tāngata, 2022 – Free access.

Te mana o te wāhine – Māori women: Women of rank – Rawinia Higgins and Paul Meredith, Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand – Free access.