This series contains photographic material that is supplementary to Norman Barnett Tindale's field notes and expedition journals from 1921 to 1991. Currently there are only 46 processed volumes of photographic images acquired by Tindale from 1921 to 1957. The remaining part of the photographic collection has yet to be processed. This includes: unsorted loose photographic and contact prints; photograph albums; slides etc., relating to Tindale's expeditions from 1957 onwards; overseas travels and visits to museums; personal photographs as well as copies of photographs from various publications.

The processed photographs relate to various research expeditions across Australia in which Tindale participated in including those under the auspices of the Board for Anthropological Research (See AA 346). The photographic material supports Tindale's work in the areas of social and physical anthropology, ethnography, archaeology, botany and entomology.

A great number of photographs have been annotated by Tindale himself. The annotations provide essential data about image, location and date, and often refer to corresponding journals. For that reason the annotations are treated as a primary source of information on the inventory level (AA 338/5/1 - AA 338/5/21). Each inventory item contains a detailed list of the photographs. In the summary of each inventory item there is a key to abbreviations which Tindale used in his annotations. The photographs are organised in volumes according to expeditions, and follow the chronological order of Tindale's journals where possible. The names of Australian Aboriginal groups have been cross-referenced with Tindale's 'Tribe index' which links to the catalogue in his 1974 publication: 'Aboriginal Tribes of Australia, the terrain, environmental controls, distribution limits and proper names'.

The photographic material appears in the following formats: photographic and contact prints, 35 mm film negatives, acetate negatives and positives, nitrate negatives, mounted photographs, transparencies. While a large number of these images are original there are also multiple copies which have accumulated over time. For the purpose of archival preservation, some of the photograph albums (originally put together by Tindale) have been disassembled, cross-referenced, and collated with loose duplicates and placed in archival folders or boxes.

Users are warned that some photographs in this collection may contain images and written descriptions that might be culturally sensitive. The gender specific images are not listed but they are placed in separate volumes marked as 'Restricted'.