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
This thesis engages with the ongoing debate regarding how photographs can contribute to the writing of black South African history. In the field of South African visual history, a... Show more This thesis engages with the ongoing debate regarding how photographs can contribute to the writing of black South African history. In the field of South African visual history, a significant literature explores the “white gaze” that emanates from the administrative and missionary photographic archives of the colonial period. Comparatively fewer studies, however, have addressed how black South Africans pictured themselves, largely due to the presumption that black visual archives are scarce and difficult to access. This thesis draws upon previously unexplored photographic evidence from the mid twentieth century—intimate photographs found in black homes. I argue that these images constitute an alternative archive and original source of history. Such archives present a radically different perspective on black urban communities than that emanating from public photographic collections. Photographic portraiture translates how black South Africans wanted to be seen, according to their own conventions. To study everyday photographic practices is to reflect on the set of values, attitudes and ideas that influenced this exercise of self-representation. This thesis employs a variety of methods and approaches—photo elicitation, identifying patterns in poses and conventions, scrutinizing background details, and locating photographs in today’s landscape—to help unravel the historical relevance of seemingly mundane images. Show less
