In the mid 1880s a little-known photographer named Robert Harris produced a series of albumen prints showing the stages of body searching that black labourers in De Beers diamond mines were obliged to undergo by state ordinance enacted in 1883. The original photographs surfaced briefly in the saleroom in 2007 but have since disappeared. Two sets of copies survive. Bearing in mind the history of documentary photography in South Africa, this article examines the historical and textual significance of this series of photographs in the context of the history of mining and discusses the imperatives and ethics of locating, researching, and publishing controversial imagery in the Internet age.

中文翻译：

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1880 年代戴比尔斯的钻石矿：罗伯特·哈里斯和金伯利搜索系统

1880 年代中期，一位名不见经传的摄影师罗伯特·哈里斯 (Robert Harris) 制作了一系列蛋白照片，展示了戴比尔斯钻石矿中的黑人工人根据 1883 年颁布的国家法令必须经历的身体搜索阶段。原始照片在saleroom 在 2007 年，但此后消失了。两套副本幸存下来。铭记南非纪实摄影的历史，本文在采矿史的背景下检验了这一系列照片的历史和文本意义，并讨论了在南非定位、研究和发布有争议的图像的必要性和伦理。互联网时代。