Martin and Osa Johnson with early Ni-Vanuatu residents of Malekula Island
The Daily Post of Vanuatu reported that the Vanuatu National Museum and the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum of Chanute, Kansas, USA, announced the opening of a joint photographic exhibition — “Re-Encountering Ancestors: Martin and Osa Johnson’s 1917 and 1919 Photographs Return To Vanuatu”.
Grand Design Communications represents graphic novel rights for Osa Johnson’s autobiography, I MARRIED ADVENTURE. Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum board member and legendary comics writer and editor, Roy Thomas, is consulting on the project. Read more about I MARRIED ADVENTURE graphic novel rights here.
The exhibition features photographs and motion picture work from the Johnsons’ travels around Vanuatu in 1917 and 1919. The Daily Post wrote in their report:
The Vanuatu National Museum and the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum of Chanute, Kansas, USA, has announced the opening of a joint photographic exhibition — “Re-Encountering Ancestors: Martin and Osa Johnson’s 1917 and 1919 Photographs Return To Vanuatu”.
The exhibition’s opening celebration will take place at 4pm today, Thursday July 18 in the National Archives building next to the National Museum. Following welcoming and introductory remarks from museum representatives, refreshments and kava will be served.
Martin and Osa Johnson were among the first photographers to document people and kastom in Vanuatu, and the first to document island life using motion picture cameras. Their photographs capture the faces of island ancestors and important island kastom from one hundred years ago.
The Johnsons filmed on Vao, Atchin, and various Malakula regions including Tenmaru, Lambumbu, Southwest Bay, Port Sandwich, and also on south Santo.Visitors to the exhibition will see a selection of Johnson photographs from 1917 and 1919 and segments of their motion picture work along with several Johnson documentaries.
The Johnson Safari Museum opened in 1961 to commemorate the Johnson’s photographic career in the Pacific and also Africa. The exhibition has been organized by the two museums, supported in part by a grant from the U.S. Embassy.