![]() ![]() This use of archival photographs, Sekula states (2003: 448), allows ‘ history on the character of spectacle’ and likens it to a ‘rerun’. When we regard the differences between history as interpretation versus history as representation, one needs to be aware that what one group of people may see as truthful, may represent something entirely different to someone else. Photos from an archive can be regarded as historical documents’ or as ‘ aesthetic objects’. Photographers, curators and archivists can claim that they are representing a neutral reflection of the work, but in actual fact, they are putting their own subjective slant on their selections based on their own cultural connotations.įirst option: Photographic archives maintain a discrete connection between knowledge and power. Diachronic orders follow a chronology of provenance.Īny photobook or exhibition uses elements of both ordering systems “an in so doing implicitly claim a share in both the authority and the illusory neutrality of the archive” (Sekula, 2003: 446). The taxonomic ordering could be based on authorship, genre, technique, subject matter, iconography etc. Sometimes a combination of the two methods will be used in arranging an archive. There are two methods by which archives are ordered: by classification or diachronic. Because the management of an archive usually requires some form of bureaucratic intervention, the archival perspective is more closely aligned with the capitalist than the working class, because, plainly speaking, it costs money to maintain an archive. It appeals not only to conventional culture, but also to institutions for its authority. Therefore it stands to reason that the archive is not neutral. Meaning is derived from the culture in which the archive is used. Because an archive is held “in suspension”, its meaning is simultaneously “residual” and “potential”. Meaning is derived by looking at captions, layout, text and output mode. Using a semantic analogy, Sekula states that “photographs … are fragmentary and incomplete utterances” (Sekula, 2003: 445). Photographic meaning is always contextual. This makes the power relationship that simmers at the forefront of an archive difficult to detect, except when the images are used as montages and juxtapositioning techniques. This is known as abstract visual equivalence between pictures. This differences in gazes ( radical antagonism), becomes blurred when these types of images are placed together in an archive. There are two distinct gazes at play – that of the stockholder paging through his well illustrated annual report and that of the coal miner or family member looking at a photograph of a loved one. In Shedden’s archive, the power struggle between worker and corporation(s) is evident. But the meaning will always remain nebulous because the viewer may have an entirely different read to the images, based on his/her own cultural experiences and knowledge. Pictures in an archive may be offered for sale and this inevitably also changes their meaning.Īn archive never has a fixed meaning as someone using archival images in an exhibition or body of work will have a different slant or narrative to tell than what the original photographer intended. This is one of the major characteristics of an archive that the initial author (photographer) and the control/ownership are not necessarily the same person. ![]() The ‘ territory of images’ (the archive) finds its unity in ownership. There are various types of archives: commercial, corporate, government, museum, historical, family, amateur, etc. The model of the archive is a powerful one and exerts some influence on the way we view photographs. But we first need to understand what a photographic archive is – how it may be interpreted/sampled/reconstructed in another body of work. The aim of the essay is to develop an understanding of the relationship between photographic culture and economic life. Then there were also the custom of local shopkeepers who appreciated the role photography played in promotion of their own businesses. At the other end of the spectrum were the coal miners and their families who came for portraits. Shedden’s main customer was the coal company. The thrust of Sekula’s essay revolves around the archive of a Cap Breton photographer, Leslie Shedden, who worked in and around Glace Bay. Reading an Archive | Photography between labour and capital by Allan Sekula ![]()
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