Archives

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Sekula, A. (1999) “Reading an archive: Photography between Labour and Capital” In: Evans, J & Hall, S. (eds.) Visual Culture: a reader London: Sage. (Pp181-192)

Allan Sekula took a book of archived photos taken by Leslie Sheddon (a commercial photographer) in the industrial / coal mining region of Cape Breton between 1948-1968 and discussed the photographs’ place within the archive, how the consumer could reinterpret them and what is taken forward to the next era of knowledge.

Sheddon’s archive consisted of commercial (employer) and family life (employee) archive photographs. The archive is a popular choice for bookmakers, so Sekula discusses whether photographic practice should include use of archives. 

  • There are different types of archives – corporate, government, museum, family, collectors etc. People own archives – control and ownership can belong to different people. Archives can have individual pictures and meanings up for sale within it. Purchase of reproduction rights is under licence e.g. Picturethepast.org.uk charge £10 for a photograph of the sinking of Rufford pit for a personal use licence but £40 to publish it inside a book in one language.
  • Photographs could lose their original meaning and gain a new one.
  • Gaze differs between employer and employee. When joined together in an archive, “radical antagonism between looks is eclipsed” (p193)
  • Archive photos in the book may use printing techniques which are different from the originals between the two types of images which could obscure the information and sentiment within the images and could show a juxtaposition of power.
  • Text within the original image which gave the image meaning may be removed. The truth may be lost in reproduction.
  • Authoritarian power of people holding the archives resembles capitalism.
  • Archives are sorted by taxonomy (different types) or diachronic (sequential e.g. date / time)
  • In an exhibition, the ordering system tends to be followed making it appear neutral. In a film, the photographs may be reordered and cannot be broken down.
  • “Naturalisation of the cultural” (Barthes) is repeated until criticised (p186)
  • Hidden connection between knowledge and power. Historic documents (people think an archive is truthful, but it could produce nostalgia, horror and exorcism of the past) versus aesthetic objects (which produce secondary voyeurism e.g as in pop art.)
  • Science (objective truth) versus art (a cult of “subjective experience” Sekula argues it is neither, but it is between the two. “State(s) its claim to the cultural value on both the model of truth upheld by empirical science and the model of pleasure and expressiveness offered by romantic aestheticists.” (p190)
  • Photography in everyday life is materialistic cultural history not art history.

Sekula concludes by agreeing that the Sheddon archive contained industrial progress and memories, sentiments and emotions of the employees and their families.

At Format Festival 2019 (Derby University Conference), several archives were presented by photographers including a short film by Edgar Martins exploring the social context of incarceration in HMP Birmingham using recontextualised archive footage. 
https://photography3nh.blogspot.com/p/study-days-and-exhibitions.html
Looking at Maurice Broomfield’s industrial photographs, the viewer thinks that they show the truth of industrial Britain at the time. However, the photographs were often taken after the day’s work with the employees slightly out of context and simplifying the image to enhance the product which was being marketed. However, when viewed in today’s world, people may not make this connection. From what I remember, Edgar Martin’s film explores the prison system using the analogy of Schroedinger’s cat. An earlier film of his (shown at the Rencontres D’ Arles in 2017) used documentary photographs with factual records to “explore their speculative and fictional potential proposing to scrutinise the tensions and contradictions  inherent in the representation and imagination of death, in particular violent death, and, correlatively , the decisive but deeply paradoxical role that photography has played in its perception and intelligibility.” His work makes me question truth versus reality, and at times it is quite believable.

References
Sekula, A. (1999) “Reading an archive: Photography between Labour and Capital” In: Evans, J & Hall, S. (eds.) Visual Culture: a reader London: Sage. (Pp181-192)
http://www.edgarmartins.com/video/siloquies-soliloquies-death-life-interludes-compilation-video/

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