Information and discussion on all aspects of British photographic history
What names did native people give to those new images-cum-objects ? How was that unknown device perceived ? What does it mean to be looked at by a veiled head ?
My doctoral research offers a shift of focus and point of view on the act of photography in South America. Can our understanding of photography change if we take native peoples’ perspective on the camera as a starting point ?
To be sure, European collections depicting an ancestral America are testament to the social and political context of the time and to the colonial dimension of the newcomers’ relation to native communities. These communities have lost part of their culture, as well as their economical and territorial autonomy. But they are also testament to an untold story, not only about the use of technical devices, but about the approach to knowledge and superstition that condition the culture of these people from “the end of the world”. The idea that native people do not want to be photographed, especially because it would be “stealing their souls”, is a colonial myth. This western belief gave value to the images brought back by explorers. The reasons behind refusing the camera are much more complex and diverse : they can be about the camera angle, the circulation of the image of the self, the one-sided nature of the transaction, the lack of understanding of the device, or political and spiritual considerations.
The results of my research are inseparable from the exhibition of my artistic work and the portfolio that goes along with it. My research blurs the boundaries between curator and artist, between research and creation, between theoretical and artistic practice. The exhibition and the portfolio combine different lines of inquiry following an experimental and interdisciplinary approach ; they use an ethnographic collection to postulate the existence of a “mystical mechanic”.
Keywords : proto-photographie, apparatus, photographic mechanics, mysticism, superstitions, South America, shadow, soul.
More info : https://www.ensp-arles.fr/evenements/mankacen-mecanique-photographi...
Victoria and Albert Museum's photography collection
National Science and Media Museum
RPS Journal 1853-2012 online and searchable
Photographic History Research Centre, Leicester
Birkbeck History and Theory of Photography Research Centre
William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné
British Photography. The Hyman Collection
The Press Photo History Project Mapping the photo agencies and photographers of Fleet Street and the UK
The correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot
Historic England Archive
UAL Photography and Photography and the Archive Research Centre
Royal Photographic Society's Historical Group
www.londonstereo.com London Stereoscopic Company / T. R. Williams
www.earlyphotography.co.uk British camera makers and companies
Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock.
National Portrait Gallery, London
http://www.freewebs.com/jb3d/
Alfred Seaman and the Photographic Convention
Frederick Scott Archer
© 2022 Created by Michael Pritchard.
Powered by
You need to be a member of British photographic history to add comments!
Join British photographic history