Empire and the Visual Representation of Nature

Abstract

Science and technology helped to shape resource frontiers in the Empire and conquer environments. They also framed new understandings of environmental change and conservationist policies. In a different way, visual representations conjured the Empire for British people and permeated their view of it. They were an inescapable element in the imagining of imperial nature. The growing range of images, we will argue, similarly had potential for encouraging possession, exploitation, and conservation of natural resources. In 1926, an Empire Marketing Board was established in Britain to promote the consumption of food and products from the colonies and dominions. In its short life till 1933, it produced some of the most striking pictorial representations of empire in the shape of over 700 posters. These were carefully commissioned with explicit instructions to some of the leading designers and poster artists in the country. Many captured the central themes that we have tried to illustrate: they depicted commodities, such as South African fruit, Australian wool, Ghanaian cocoa, or Malaysian pineapples, against a background of vivid landscapes, and sometimes the people who worked to turn nature into commodities. They promoted a positive image of an interdependent empire, in which exotic and beautiful environments, partly tamed, gave forth their riches for the British consumer. In this chapter, we try to describe some of the images transmitted about the landscape and environment of empire, especially in the century from about 1850.While our major focus is on British-based representations, some reference is made to artistic work elsewhere that fed into the imperial visual store. Visual material such as Marketing Board posters familiarized British audiences with far-flung conquered zones, and naturalized their exploitation. However, these images were only one style of representation; there were many others and it is important to capture some of the complexity and variety of visual imaginations, developed in many different media. Images could transcend their intended purpose, and, as in the case of approaches to nature itself, there were conflicting and contending voices. Jostling alongside images that celebrated exploitation were others that championed nature or portrayed it sympathetically. Because of the power of visual media, it is arguable that these had a particular influence on environmental thinking.