Biography: 19th Century Colonial Samoa photographer Thomas Andrew

Biography: 19th Century Colonial Samoa photographer Thomas Andrew

MonoVisions Black & White Photo Contest 2025

Thomas Andrew (1855 – 1939) was a New Zealand photographer who lived in Samoa.

Andrew took photographs that are of significant historical and cultural value including the recording on camera of key events in Samoa’s colonial era such as the Mau movement, the volcanic eruption of Mt Matavanu (1905–1911) and the funeral of writer Robert Louis Stevenson.

Many of his surviving images are held in the collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and include landscapes and studio portraits of Samoans that went beyond the colonial stereotypes of the time.

Roast Pig

Roast Pig. Photo by Thomas Andrew

Village scene

Village scene. Photo by Thomas Andrew

Net fishing, Samoa

Net fishing, Samoa. Photo by Thomas Andrew

Mata’afa Iosefo Laiufi and court

Mata’afa Iosefo Laiufi and court. Photo by Thomas Andrew

Waterfall

Waterfall. Photo by Thomas Andrew

Village scene

Village scene. Photo by Thomas Andrew

Papalaulelei, Savai’i, 1907.

Papalaulelei, Savai’i, 1907. Photo by Thomas Andrew

Inaga fishing

Inaga fishing. Photo by Thomas Andrew

Harbour scene

Harbour scene. Photo by Thomas Andrew

Village scene

Village scene. Photo by Thomas Andrew


MonoVisions Black & White Photo Contest 2025