German photographer Carl (Charles) Walter photographed the Kulin residents of Coranderrk Aboriginal Station during the 1860s for international and intercolonial exhibitions. He was networked into German scientific circles, and his work circulated around the world. Yet today we may see a more complex network of encounters and attitudes recorded in his portraits of the diverse group of First Nations peoples then living at the settlement. Here I review changing ways of understanding colonial photography as context for the significance of Walter’s work in nineteenth-century Victoria. I briefly sketch his photographic career and networks and conclude by summarising his enduring value for descendants today. We can see Walter’s work and its deployment by First Nations descendants as a form of ‘visual citizenship’, and a way of creating relationships between people and the state through dynamic visual practices. The changing value of the images, from science to family portrait, demonstrates the fluidity of visual meaning.