Studio portrait of peranakan group, nyonyas are in sarong kebaya

Title

Year/Period

1930s

Region

Sulawesi, Makassar

Object Type

gelatin silver prints

Material

photographic gelatin, paper (fiber product), silver gelatin paper

Technique

gelatin silver process, mounting

Dimension

Object size: 17.0 x 22.0 x 0.2 cm,
Image size: 10.0 x 14.0 cm

Accession No.

2015-00679

Collection of

Peranakan Museum

Credit Line

Gift of Mr and Mrs Lee Kip Lee

This photograph shows a group of Peranakan women, three of them in sarong kebaya. On the verso is the studio mark of ‘Wah Seng’. This large group of photographs provides important visual documentation of the fashion, studio photography and lifestyle of Peranakans of the Straits Settlements and Indonesia in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. The collection also allows study of different photographic techniques and covers a wide range of themes, including changing fashions (from baju panjang and baju kurong to kebaya and cheongsam), festive celebrations (weddings, funerals, ancestral rites, Chinese New Year), interiors, transportation and children.