Digital technology has put photography at the fingertips of almost anyone who desires to engage in this popular hobby. 

By Paul Wagum

With the array of photographic gadgets, ranging from simple "point and shoot" digital cameras to low end digital SLRs and even mobile phones, it is not uncommon to see even young children pointing an image capturing device on any occasion, such as weddings, birthday parties, church events, etc.

 Capabilities like live view and the ability to instantly preview the image you have just captured are advantages that the photographers of yesteryears never enjoyed. It means that the new generations of photographers can now compose better images or reshoot their images if they are not happy with it.

With the array image enhancing tools that are now available in our PCs, laptops, cameras and mobile phones, this generation of shutterbugs can now transform their images from simple  picture to a one that looks like it has been captured on one of those high end digital SLRs like Nikon or Canon or shot by an established pro.

Other advantages that come with todays digital cameras is their auto and manual setting as well as their ability to auto focus, the through the lens (TTL) metering, built in flash,  plus dedicated functions for portraits, landscape, closeups,  etc which help the photographepr cut out a lot of guess work. 

For the serious amateur, this means that their gadget bag is now lighter and the introduction of zoom lenses  means they can carry a number of lenses in a single barrel.

The other major break through is the ability to print instantly from a PC, and to choose if you want it in colour or black and white. Older photographers had to wait weeks before their films were processed at a lab.

For the pre-digital age generation, photography was for those who were patient and had money to burn. They had to choose between shooting colour or black and white, or if they wanted print or slides and they had to buy their desired  film and load it into their cameras before they can capture images. 

The films came in various lengths or exposures - 12, 24 or 36 and the prices for the film and processing varied according to the different lengths or if it is colour, black and white or slides. When the number of shots were used up you either had to re-load ( if you had spare roll of film) or simply stop taking any more photographs, and take the film to the lab for processing.

Before the advent of one hour  processing, which hit our shores towards the end of 70s and early 80s, it took about three weeks for the film  to return from the Kodak lab in Australia. It was only after the film was collected from their agents (Chemists and major supermarkets) that the photographers can see if their shots came out to their expectation/satisfaction. One hour processors have now been superseded with instant digital printers, as we all know.

Organizations like news papers, some government departments, mining companies and even churches, had departments and  sections which were dedicated to taking photographs to support their work like; publicity, training and even promotions. Some needed to send reports to their head quarters which were off shore. Most of these organizations used black and white film and had in-house processing labs to process and print the films they shot.

This meant that their photographers must be able to shoot, process and print because organizations like news papers needed the pictures to go with their stories.

So after shooting their films they went in to the lab, known as a" dark room" to process them which took about 30 minutes . The film had to be dried before the required image can be printed.

This generation of photographers wet their hand and smelt chemicals and in PNG their number is decreasing.

On Bougainville there are two such persons - Paul Wagum and Jacob Ienu (aka Snipper). They are members of a  four men team of photographers who served BCl and they are still wielding their Nikon cameras around, except that now they have upgraded to Digital Nikons (SLRs).

Bougainville, referred to in the 60s as "las ples' lacked the vital infra structure and services that would support a huge industry like mining so BCL had to build the necessary infra structure, which included; power station, roads, port facilities and a training college which was responsible for training bulk of the company's work force, and set most of the support services that it needed.

The Photographic department was one of those services which BCL established to support its operations. The others included; ambulance and  fire services, security, medical services, printing, bus service and so on.

It was used to support the company by providing pictures for their training manuals, support occupational Health and safety, take photographs of equipment failure for insurance and warranty claims purposes, profile progress and new developments in the mine, provide pictures for publication. and support the company's environment monitoring commitments. Many of the pictures ended up at the company's head quaters in Melbourne.

One of the key responsibilities in supporting the Occupational Health and Safety was documenting accidents which took place in the areas within the mine lease which included; Arawa town, Loloho, the Port Mine Access Road (PMAR) and the mine itself.

It was the requirement of the Mining Warden (then) that personnel involved in an accident may  be removed as soon as is pratically possible and taken to the hospital etc, but the scene of the accident must remain undisturbed until photographs were taken of the scene and the equipment involved. That is why photographers were on call 24/7.

The section was equiped with the latest, state of the art equipment including cameras, and dark room equipment and were producing black and white prints, colour slides  as well as colour print from slides using a process called Cibachrome.

Therefore it was the perfect place to turn to for those who were going finish and wanted to take a piece of Bougainville with them  and those who were looking for a gift to present to some one special because their collection  had wide range of pictures about Bougainville including aerial photos of many of the bougainville's popular land marks like volcanoes,, lakes, waterfalls, and the mine itself. 

The section was part of a bigger Media Services Department within the Liaison and Media services department and  included; video production, publication, lithography and graphic designs. 

Both photographers had very little photographic know how and skills before joining the section. Paul dropped out of Law School at UPNG and had taste of few desk jobs before settling down to taking photographs  while Jacob studied arts at Goroka Technical College and studied some photography as part of his Arts course.

They learned their trade on the job mentored by the different supervisors who were attached to the section from time to time.

By the time Bougainville crises forced the closure of the mine, there were four people working at the photographic section with Paul Wagum as (Staff Photographer) as head of the section  and Jacob and the other two; Diro Peter from Milne Bay and late Donaldson Muraba from Oro were technical Officers. Diro and Donaldson were responsible for all the black and white processing and printing and Jacob was in charge of the colour printing Lab.

With the closure of the mine, Diro Peter and Donalson Muraba returned to their respective Provinces and Paul and Jacob, both Bougainvilleans remained on ths Island.

In 1994 Paul joined Tukana Media Production owned by late Albert Toro, in Port Moresby, for a short time and in 1997 moved to Lae to join the Unitech Audio Visual Department, where he worked for 15 years until he retired in 2013.

in 2014 he was engaged by Jomik Trading Limited, Bougainville's leading business enterprise to assist with their HR Department. He resigned in 2020 and is now living in his village in Siwai South Bougainville.

Jacob Ienu lived in his village, along the Port Mine Access Road (PMAR) through out the crises, and did some odd work with some organizations when situation normalized. He is now working as a freelance with Post Courier.

When Paul and Jacob meet occasionally  they share stories about their past experiences at work and the people with whom they worked. They refer to themselves as the ramnants.

END.