Men Alone, Men Entwined: Reconsidering Colonial Masculinity

Abstract

Two men pose together in an oval cut-out. The man on our right stands for the camera and lays his arm against the back of his seated companion. Both ignore the camera. They study a book instead, absorbed in the world portrayed by its pages. The pair shares a moment in time, a space, and also an intimate closeness; these are no men alone. What is their story, and what does it tell us about men's lives in late-nineteenth-century New Zealand?