This photograph was one of a large group of photo documentation of an early collector, possibly from William Louis Abbott, during his travels around Southeast Asia (between 1890-1910). Further evidences are found and recorded in the Raffles Museum Annual Reports from 1903-1907, indicating that Abbott had consistently donated a series of photo documentation of his trips to the museum. A similar batch of ethnographic photographs can be traced to the Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives. A larger group of Abbott's collection (including photos, letters to his mother and sister and artefacts) were also housed in the Smithsonian Institution.Abott’s method of photographic documentation was influenced by the then-current interest in anthropometry – measurements of the human individual for the purpose of understanding physical variation. The bodies of non European people became subjects of interest to Western scholars. For some scientists, body measurement even became a means of demonstrating the superiority of the Europeans.Abbott lined his subjects up against a plain backdrop and took front and side-view shots. Most of the photographs he took show only torso and head.
