"Jane Lydon's meticulous investigation of the role of photography in the cross-cultural engagement that took place at Coraderrk from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century unfolds with a narrative drive. The community at Coranderrk comes alive. We care about the residents, how they have been represented in successive periods, and how their descendants now use the photographs to reclaim the past and construct their own narratives."-Roslyn Poignant, author of Professional Savages: Captive Lives and Western Spectacle"What makes this study especially rich and important is the way Jane Lydon takes full advantage of photographic theory without imposing it reductively or simplistically. This is particularly impressive because she shows in very nuanced ways that different photographs were produced for different reasons at different times and that these photos embody various ideas about Aboriginality and science."-David Prochaska, co-author of Beyond East and West: Seven Transnational Artists"Jane Lydon's critical history, Eye Contact: Photographing Indigenous Australians,examines a charged period of cross-cultural encounter through an analysis of "themost substantial body of nineteenth and early-twentieth century photographs from anAustralian site"'--Times Literary Supplement, 12 May 2006"This is a well written book, intelligently conceived and well argued. It is theoretically sophisticated while remaining accessible."-Peggy Brock, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History"[A]useful general reader on mid-colonial attitudes.

As a well-written and informative survey of an era in which photography was used for quite specific purposes, it contributes significantly to the first round of interpretative analysis of what is a huge archive of photographs from the period. Lydon also offers several methodologies that Pacific historians might follow should they focus on a single site and a defined body of photographic evidence, ."-Max Quanchi, Journal of Pacific History.