Is it ethical to freely redistribute photographs taken in colonial contexts, historically and today? Showing the complexities behind this question, this study looks at how a vast media network... Show moreIs it ethical to freely redistribute photographs taken in colonial contexts, historically and today? Showing the complexities behind this question, this study looks at how a vast media network evolved around the commercial photographic studio at Mariannhill Monastery and the mission station Centocow in South Africa from the 1880s until today. Taking a grass-roots perspective, it argues that photographs produced by missionaries, like all colonial photographs, must be studied by considering their interconnectedness: first, their alliances with other media, like paintings, theatre plays, tableaux vivants, maps, films, exhibitions, and “ethnographic” objects; second, the exhibitionary complex they depend on, involving museums, libraries, archives, and printing presses; and finally the lobbies, journals, printed instructions, discourses, and interpretive communities that produced, used, and consumed them. Eventually, the study turns to the crucial question how photographs act on and as subjects. Few colonial photographs have left sufficient traces that allow to write their biographies. Mariannhill’s photographs, however, due to their aesthetic aspiration and the congregation’s unique setup, have successfully taken root in many places, moments, and discourses. To show the photographs’ ongoing relevance for stakeholders in both South Africa and Europe, and possible ways of dealing with them today, this study follows their intermediary role over time and in between other images, spaces, objects, and subjects. Show less
