WHI Bleek wrote a report on these photographs (published in 1871 and expressed in language of the time), detailing, as he saw it, "three distinct races of men" to which he linked the idea of three distinct families of language. The report, which reflects his understanding at the very beginning of his learning |xam and working with |xam speakers, may be read in the appendix to "Specimens of Bushman folklore".
Photographs taken by Dorothea Bleek and in studios for WHI Bleek will, today, in many cases be seen as offensive, racist or otherwise demeaning. By presenting these images here we do not endorse, in any way, the ideas of the time that gave rise to them. While we have not included some of the images in which people were made to pose in objectifying ways we have included other collections of images, acknowledging that scholars and the general publics may want to consult these images in order to understand the condition of the time.
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