Sarah Johnston Chinnery (; 1887 – 1970) was a British-Australian photographer and diarist, known for her photographs and diaries of sixteen years in the

Territory of Papua New Guinea The Territory of Papua and New Guinea, officially the Administrative Union of the Territory of Papua and the Territory of New Guinea, was established by an administrative union between the Australian-administered territories of Papua and New G ...

during the 1920s and 30s.

Early life

Born Sarah Johnston Neill in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

, Ireland, she moved to the town of

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wy ...

in Buckinghamshire, England at the age of 13, where her older brothers operated a dental surgery. Her interest in photography began when one of her brothers gave her a "Little Nipper" camera. Originally employed to "keep house" in her brothers' surgery, Neill qualified as a dentist herself and replaced her brother Bob in the practice when he left to serve in the army during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Many of her dental patients at the time were from the large army camp nearby, and in 1918, she met

Ernest Chinnery Ernest William Pearson Chinnery (5 November 1887 – 17 December 1972) was an Australian anthropologist and public servant. He worked extensively in Papua New Guinea and visited communities along the Sepik The Sepik () is the longest river o ...

(known as Pearson Chinnery or "Chin")–an Australian observer lieutenant in the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

. They married in April 1919, and lived in Cambridge where Pearson Chinnery studied and lectured in anthropology at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

New Guinea

Pearson received a grant from the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

in 1920, and the couple moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia later that year while they considered moving to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

where Pearson had previously served as a magistrate. He moved there later in the year as director of native labour for New Guinea Copper Mines, with Sarah joining him in

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Z ...

in 1921. In 1924, Pearson was appointed government anthropologist of the

Territory of New Guinea The Territory of New Guinea was an Australian-administered United Nations trust territory on the island of New Guinea from 1914 until 1975. In 1949, the Territory and the Territory of Papua were established in an administrative union by the nam ...

, and they moved to

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about 600 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in ...

. The Chinnerys spent sixteen years in New Guinea, where Sarah regularly took solo trips around the territory to take photographs of the landscape and the indigenous people. Unlike most ethnographic photography of the time, Chinnery's photographs were not staged and were respectful depictions of local residents in their daily lives. Chinnery did not exhibit her work during her lifetime, but her photographs were published in several of Australia's major newspapers, along with articles and anecdotes written by her. In March 1935, she produced a three-page article and photo spread for the weekend magazine of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. In addition to her photographic work, Chinnery kept extensive diaries of her time in New Guinea and Papua. She began to rewrite her diaries as a book in the mid-1930s, but abandoned this work after the 1937 volcanic eruption in Rabaul, after which she returned to Australia. Her manuscripts were typed up by her four daughters and donated to the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

, which published them in 1998 as ''Malaguna Road: The Papua and New Guinea Diaries of Sarah Chinnery'', edited by Kate Fortune.

Later life

Chinnery died at Sandringham Hospital in Melbourne on 24 March 1970, aged 83. She was survived by her husband (who died in 1972), and their four daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinnery, Sarah 1887 births 1970 deaths Australian women photographers Women photographers from Northern Ireland British dentists Emigrants from Northern Ireland to Australia Australian expatriates in Papua New Guinea British expatriates in Papua New Guinea 20th-century Australian photographers 20th-century dentists 20th-century Australian women Artists from Belfast People from Aylesbury