Full Description
Moving the critical debate about photography away from its current Euro-American center of gravity, Photography's Other Histories breaks with the notion that photographic history is best seen as the explosion of a Western technology advanced by the work of singular individuals. This collection presents a radically different account, describing photography as a globally disseminated and locally appropriated medium. Essays firmly grounded in photographic practice—in the actual making of pictures—suggest the extraordinary diversity of nonwestern photography.Richly illustrated with over 100 images, Photography's Other Histories explores from a variety of regional, cultural, and historical perspectives the role of photography in raising historical consciousness. It includes two first-person pieces by indigenous Australians and one by a Seminole/Muskogee/Dine' artist. Some of the essays analyze representations of colonial subjects—from the limited ways Westerners have depicted Navajos to Japanese photos recording the occupation of Manchuria to the changing "contract" between Aboriginal subjects and photographers. Other essays highlight the visionary quality of much popular photography. Case studies centered in early-twentieth-century Peru and contemporary India, Kenya, and Nigeria chronicle the diverse practices that have flourished in postcolonial societies. Photography's Other Histories recasts popular photography around the world, as not simply reproducing culture but creating it.
Contributors. Michael Aird, Heike Behrend, Jo-Anne Driessens, James Faris, Morris Low, Nicolas Peterson, Christopher Pinney, Roslyn Poignant, Deborah Poole, Stephen Sprague, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Christopher Wright
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: "How the Other Half . . ." / Christopher Pinney 1
1. Personal Archives
Relating to Photographs / Jo-Anne Driessens 17
Growing Up with Aborigines / Michael Aird 23
When Is a Photograph Worth a Thousand Words? / Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie 40
2. Visual Economies
The Making of Professional "Savages": From P.T. Barnam (1883) to the Sunday Times (1998) / Roslyn Poignant 55
Navajo and Photography / James Faris 85
The Japanese Colonial Eye: Science, Exploration, and Empire / Morris Law 100
The Changing Photographic Contract: Aborigines and Image Ethics / Nicolas Peterson 119
Supple Bodies: The Papua New Guinea Photographs of Captain Francis R. Barton, 1899-1907 / Christopher Wright 146
3. Self-Fashioning and Vernacular Modernism
Figueroa Anznar and the Cusco Indigenistas: Photography and Modernism in Early-Twentieth Century Peru / Deborah Poole 173
Notes from the Surface of the Image: Photography, Postcolonialism, and Vernacular Modernism / Christopher Pinney 202
Imagined Journeys: The Likoni Ferry Photographers of Mombasa, Kenya / Heike Behrend 221
Yoruba Photography: How the Yoruba See Themselves / Stephen Sprague 240
Works Cited 261
Contributors 277
Index 279
