Thief (White Ghost 10)

Injecting myself as photographic model, into various personas I explore self and other. Thief is one of The White Ghost Series, where I variously explore the self as convict, whore, sailor, and in this photograph, as thief. I do this work to understand the white people that settled here. So hungry were the convicts of Sydney Cove that they would risk being hanged if caught stealing. So prevalent was theft, particularly of food from gardens and the stores in the early years that a new Night Watch was set up to try and stem the light fingered nature of anyone hungry enough to risk death, and this included both marines and convicts.