Unique Vintage Photo Portraits of the Sámi People by Roche/Bonaparte From the 19th Century

In 1884, Prince Roland Bonaparte organized an anthropological expedition to Northern Norway and Sweden to study and document the Sámi people. Most of the photography from this journey was carried out by the expedition’s photographer, G. Roche.

Rather than capturing spontaneous scenes of daily life, Roche and Bonaparte relied on strict frontal and profile poses. This approach followed a standardized, quasi‑scientific method intended to record physical characteristics. The resulting archive contains more than one hundred portraits of Sámi individuals. Many sitters are identified by name, including Jol Andersen, Anna Hurri, and Niels Larsen Pilto. Although the subjects often wear traditional gákti, they are positioned against plain backdrops or within rigid framing. Some images even feature numbered tags or height markers, reflecting the period’s fixation on racial classification. Beyond portraiture, the expedition also photographed Sámi dwellings, boats, and elements of the Arctic environment. These additional images help situate the portraits within the broader landscape of Northern Norway in the 1880s.

h/t: vintag.es