Inodependence

pictorial

Nareau’s Nation, a portrait of the Gilbert Islands by Tony

Whincup. Published by Stacey

International, London, 1979. 228 pages. £ 14.00. ‘To those who know the Gil bert Islands, I trust that this book will recall happy memor ies and to others I hope it proves of interest and may even tempt them to visit our shores,’ writes leremaia Tabai Kiribati’s prime minister as from independence on July 12, Westminster willing of this hefty pictorial which is to be

published on Independence

Day.

It will do both of these things. But for all its lavishness, one is left with the feeling that it could have been so much bet

ter. Author/photographer

Alan Whincup, according to

the dust Jacket, now a resident of Kiribati, obviously has de voted much of his time to cap turing almost every aspect of Gilbertese life and scenery.

Interestingly he has chosen to work mostly in monochrome a preference held by many photographers, amateur and professional, who feel that its

impact is so much more evoca tive than full colour. Problem

is, something has happened

along the way either in the camera in Whincup’s hands, in the dark room, or on the presses, because the end result is flatness, and lack of defi nition not of ‘extreme con trasts’ which Whincup talks of in his preface. Nevertheless, Nareau’s Nation is a timely publication. But, at £14.00 a copy in Britain, it’s frightening to think what it is going to cost in this part of the world for those people Prime Minister Tabai would like to see visiting his islands’ shores as a result of

reading it.

Bob Hawkins.

Fisherman with day’s haul ... from Nareau’s Nation