More than Corpses, Less than Ghosts

A Visual Theory of Culture in Early Ethnographic Photography

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7436282
AutoresG Delaplace (0000-0001-9721-4686, Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen35
Número1
Páginas37-49
Fecha de publicación2019-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaVisual Anthropology Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1058-7187 • E-ISSN: 1548-7458
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/var.12177
OpenAlexW2945480627
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas12

In its intent to make “culture” visible through the objective depiction of specific scenes of indigenous life, ethnographic photography at the turn of the twentieth century could be understood against two other scientific uses of the camera at that time: the anatomic photographs of physical anthropologists, on the one hand, and the ghost photographs of spiritualist circles, on the other. Indeed, while capturing “culture” involved having more than still bodies appear on the picture, which implied elaborate apparatuses meant to make it happen in front of the camera lens, early ethnographers were anxious not to let too much appear either, as “culture” was supposed to manifest itself more subtly than the ghosts revealed through spirit photography. This article thus argues that photographing “culture” at the turn of the twentieth century meant getting its invisibility right; it describes some of the devices and operations early ethnographers used to make it appear objectively

Depiction · Invisibility · Visual culture · Museums and Cultural Heritage · Photography and Visual Culture · Visual Culture and Art Theory