No description available.

This thesis seeks to examine the ways that the success of the Dutch Empire at the turn of the twentieth century was represented and celebrated in the photographic albums of Dutch sugar industrialists in Java. It aims to show how the photographic practices that developed in the colony in parallel with its industrialisation informed the ways that the colony was imagined in the metropolis and the colony. Whether social portraiture, topographic studies or depictions of industrial machinery and infrastructure, the photographs of the sugar industry were part and parcel of a topical vernacular tradition that generated distinct visual themes in the development of popular photographic genres, and which reflected the cultural hybridity and social stratification of the local sugar world. This analysis is pursued through close reading of the photographic albums of the Pietermaat-Soesman family from the Kalibagor sugar factory in Java. These albums exemplify how the family albums of sugar industrialists retained the familiarity and cult value of the family album whilst illustrating the values and attitudes of the colonial industry and society. What is more, the Pietermaat-Soesman albums underline the significance of the albums' materiality; their story is not only one of images, but also a story of objects. I specifically pay attention to the role of photographers and commercial photo studios in the formulation of the pictorial commonplace of the sugar industry. It is the collaboration between sugar industrialists and colony-based photographers that reveals the social necessity, ideological constraints, pictorial conventions and cultural idioms of colonial industry and society in the Dutch East Indies. Largely understudied in both the Dutch and Indonesian histories of photography, this material, I argue, may problematise the ideological premises of ‘colonial' photography.

The notion of doubledeath, as an idea to generate work, can be seen as both an ironic reflection on the medium of photography and a critical attempt to comment on contemporary culture. In short, the inherent characteristics of the photographic medium and its function within society are combined. Photography embodies both death and the beginning of something autonomous and new in the very moment of the picture-taking process. A photograph is a mere simulation of what was once there, in front of the lens, transformed onto photographic paper. It then opens up a whole range of new possibilities to the viewer. The photograph's almost life-like appearance informs the photographic myth that is the idea that a photograph provides evidence of absolute truth. This characteristic together with the possibility of manipulating and altering a photograph has been continuously exploited by mass media to influence, make and guide our perceptions towards reality. These characteristics of image-making have left the borders between fiction and fact blurred. Living in a world of over-mediation it is hard to escape and find one's way around in this melting pot of the various realities suggested. Reality today is informed by the present trace of an absent original. When this is recorded photographically, it could be described as a doubledeath. Both this research documentation and the studio work are social comments on contemporary life and artmaking. Where photographs record scenes from life informed by visual simulation (the presence of the absent) the notion of doubledeath becomes most obvious. Moreover, they reflect contemporary culture, addressing and investigating concerns fueled by today's omnipresent commodity and life-style culture, and provoking thoughts about illusion and the crises of the real. In the 21st century we interact with, acknowledge, accept or even prefer the surface over the essence of things, and real experience becomes more diluted.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South African photography in the 20th century was dominated by the documentary genre. This genre has its roots in 19th century Modernist and colonialist belief in the accuracy of the camera as a tool of representation, and faith in the camera's objectivity and ability to present empirical evidence and 'truth'. These positivist notions were carried into South African documentary practice during the apartheid era. Apartheid-era South African documentary photography was particularly focused on exposing the socio-political ills of apartheid in order to gain support for the liberation movement, both locally and abroad. It was serious and didactic in its purpose and did not allow for creative responses to the medium, as the camera was seen as a 'weapon' of the struggle. The 1990s saw the beginning of the emergence of a liberated South Africa. The documentary imperative to record and expose apartheid practices was now increasingly redundant. Photographers, particularly after the elections, were faced with a 'crisis' of sorts in documentary as the main focus of their subject had been removed. The upshot of this was that documentary photographers had to find new subjects, which they had to approach in different ways. The arrival of Postmodernism in South Africa coincided with the demise of apartheid. It had in essence been kept at bay by what seemed to be the more pressing issues of the struggle. Postmodern art and its theoretical base, post-structuralism, argued for an erosion of the previously fixed concepts of genre, and allowed for the mixing of the previously separate categories of 'documentary' and 'art'. There was a radical questioning of previously fixed constructs of race, identity, class and gender. The erosion of the documentary imperative to record allowed for more creative responses to the medium than ever before. Artists were able to experiment technically, with video, multi-media, digital photography, historical processes, colour, composite work and interactive pieces. In this thesis I explore the above-mentioned shift and situate my practical work within this contemporary paradigm. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Op die gebied van fotografie is die toneel in Suid-Afrika in die 20ste eeu deur die dokumentêre genre oorheers. Die genre het sy oorsprong in 'n Modernistiese en kolonialistiese, 19de-eeuse siening, naamlik dat die kamera 'n objektiewe en akkurate voorstellingsmiddel is waarmee empiriese bewyse ingesamel en die "waarheid" uitgebeeld kan word. Hierdie positiwistiese uitkyk is tydens die apartheidsjare op die dokumentêre praktyk in Suid-Afrika oorgedra. Tydens hierdie era was dokumentêre fotografie daarop gemik om die sosiopolitieke euwels van Suid-Afrika onder apartheid bloot te lê, ten einde sowel binnelands as buitelands vir die bevrydingsbewegings steun te werf Met hierdie gewigtige en didaktiese doel voor oë, was daar min ruimte vir 'n kreatiewe hantering van die medium, aangesien die kamera as 'n "wapen" in die stryd teen apartheid gesien is. Die 1990's het die begin van Suid-Afrika se bevryding ingelui. Die dokumentêre imperatief om apartheidsdade op rekord te stel en aan die groot klok te hang, het vervaag. Fotograwe het 'n soort "krisis" in die gesig gestaar, veral na die verkiesing, want die onderwerp van hulle fokus het verdwyn. Die resultaat was dat dokumentêre fotograwe nuwe temas moes vind, wat hulle vanuit 'n ander oogpunt moes benader. In Suid-Afrika het die koms van Postmodernisme met die ondergang van apartheid saamgeval. Voorheen is dit in wese oorskadu deur oënskynlik belangriker kwessies rondom die "struggle". Postmoderne kuns en die teoretiese grondslag daarvan, naamlik post-strukturalisme, bepleit 'n beweging weg van die vaste begrip van genre wat voorheen gegeld het. Hiervolgens raak 'n vermenging van die voorheen afsonderlike kategorieë 'dokumentêr' en 'kuns' moontlik. Dit bring ook 'n radikale bevraagtekening mee van die konstrukte ras, identiteit, klas en geslag, wat voorheen as vaste indelings beskou is. Die verflouing van die dokumentêre imperatief om dinge op rekord te stel, maak dit moontlik om op 'n meer kreatiewe wyse as ooit tevore met die medium om te gaan. Kunstenaars kan nou met die tegniese sy van fotografie eksperimenteer: video, multimedia, digitale fotografie, historiese prosesse, kleur, saamgestelde werke en interaktiewe stukke. In hierdie tesis kyk ek op verkennende wyse na die veranderings waarna hierbo verwys word, en situeer ek my praktiese werk binne hierdie kontemporêre paradigma.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2015 / This research looks at home video footage and family photographs as part of the visual portrait of a curated record of the autobiographical self. The research includes a written thesis exploring the theoretical concerns and provides a reflexive analysis of the creative component of the PhD, which is a 60-minute documentary film. The research, both creative and written, assesses how autobiographical memory is informed and shaped by home video recordings, and how new digital formats have allowed home video to collapse the boundaries between the personal and the public. It also explores how personal narratives speak to the wider socio-political and cultural concerns of a particular time. These ‘collapses’ between boundaries provide a playful, pluralistic approach to a history of the self. The many paradigms that coexist within the work – the past and the present, time and space, previously accepted narratives and newly formed ones – do not exist as binary to each other, but rather exist in conversation with each other and serves to explore the ever elastic subject/object dichotomy. The autobiographical film is titled Fraternal, with the tagline ‘The future isn’t like it used to be’. It tells the emotional story of the relationships between myself and my twin, and our parents – the hellos and goodbyes, arrivals and departures, beginnings and endings that happen within family ties. The film is set against the backdrop of the political situation in southern Africa during the 1980s and 1990s. It is cut predominantly from personal home video footage: a mixture of Super 8mm, Hi8 and DV footage shot largely between 1984 and 1994 in Zimbabwe and South Africa

Este trabalho apresenta uma discussão acerca de relações estabelecidas entre a fotografia e a arte contemporânea, a partir de um viés em que a produção artística dialoga com a produção fotográfica de âmbito familiar. A fotografia é assumida como um processo mediador culturalmente construído, levando em conta aspectos de sua conformação tecnológica, bem como de seus usos sociais, ambas dimensões consideradas preponderantes para a produção de significado para estas imagens. Para estabelecer estas relações através de uma perspectiva interdisciplinar, o texto busca integrar pontos de vista de áreas do conhecimento que contribuíram para um entendimento mais complexo da fotografia em seu diálogo com a sociedade, com a tecnologia, com a história e com as artes visuais. Finalmente, elencamos algumas obras dos artistas contemporâneos Nan Goldin, Rosângela Rennó e Sascha Pohflepp que evidenciam estas relações entre as artes visuais e os instantâneos do cotidiano familiar, seja através da imagem fotográfica, da materialidade da fotografia ou dos novos circuitos de circulação e novas práticas oriundas das tecnologias digitais. / This work presents a discussion of relations between photography and contemporary art, where the artistic production dialogue with the photography in the family field. the photograph is assumed as a mediating process culturally constructed, taking into account its technological aspects, as well as their social uses, both dimensions considered preponderant for the production of meaning to these images. to establish these relationships through an interdisciplinary perspective, the text seeks to integrate views of areas of knowledge that contributed towards a more complex comprehension of photography in his dialogue with society, with the technology, with the history and the visual arts. finally, we list some works of contemporary artists nan goldin, rosangela rennó and sascha pohflepp that demonstrate these relationships between the visual arts and snapshots of daily family life, either through the photographic image, the materiality of the photograph or the new circuits and new practices coming of digital technologies.

Este trabalho apresenta uma discussão acerca de relações estabelecidas entre a fotografia e a arte contemporânea, a partir de um viés em que a produção artística dialoga com a produção fotográfica de âmbito familiar. A fotografia é assumida como um processo mediador culturalmente construído, levando em conta aspectos de sua conformação tecnológica, bem como de seus usos sociais, ambas dimensões consideradas preponderantes para a produção de significado para estas imagens. Para estabelecer estas relações através de uma perspectiva interdisciplinar, o texto busca integrar pontos de vista de áreas do conhecimento que contribuíram para um entendimento mais complexo da fotografia em seu diálogo com a sociedade, com a tecnologia, com a história e com as artes visuais. Finalmente, elencamos algumas obras dos artistas contemporâneos Nan Goldin, Rosângela Rennó e Sascha Pohflepp que evidenciam estas relações entre as artes visuais e os instantâneos do cotidiano familiar, seja através da imagem fotográfica, da materialidade da fotografia ou dos novos circuitos de circulação e novas práticas oriundas das tecnologias digitais. / This work presents a discussion of relations between photography and contemporary art, where the artistic production dialogue with the photography in the family field. the photograph is assumed as a mediating process culturally constructed, taking into account its technological aspects, as well as their social uses, both dimensions considered preponderant for the production of meaning to these images. to establish these relationships through an interdisciplinary perspective, the text seeks to integrate views of areas of knowledge that contributed towards a more complex comprehension of photography in his dialogue with society, with the technology, with the history and the visual arts. finally, we list some works of contemporary artists nan goldin, rosangela rennó and sascha pohflepp that demonstrate these relationships between the visual arts and snapshots of daily family life, either through the photographic image, the materiality of the photograph or the new circuits and new practices coming of digital technologies.

This thesis examines a thirty year span in the history of Scottish photography, focusing on the rise of the commercial studio from 1851 to assess how images were produced and consumed by the middle class in the mid-Victorian period. Using extensive archival material and a range of theoretical approaches, the research explores how photography was displayed, circulated, exploited and discussed in Scotland during its nascent years as a commodity. In doing so, it is unlike previous studies on Scottish photography that have not attended to the history of the medium as it is seen through exhibitions or the national journals, but instead have concentrated on explicating how an individual photographer or singular set of images are evidence of excellence in the field. While this thesis pays close attention to individual projects and studios, it does so to illuminate how photography functioned as a material object that equally shaped and was shaped by ideological constructs peculiar to mid-Victorian life in Scotland. It does not highlight particular photographers or works in order to elevate their standing in the history of photography but, rather, to show how they can be used as examples of a class phenomenon and provide an analytical frame for elucidating the cultural impact of commercial photography. Therefore, while the first two chapters provide a panoramic view of how photography was introduced to the Scottish middle class and how commercial photographers initially visualized Scotland, the second section is comprised of three ‘case studies' that show how the subject of the city, the landscape and the portrait were turned into objects of cultural consumption. This allows for a re-appraisal of photographs produced in Scotland during this era to suggest the impact of photography's products and processes was as vital as its visual content.

Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This thesis considers radical and reactionary political strategies for questioning systems of gender/sexuality categorisation and finds both wanting in terms of the cultural insularity and mainstream assimilation each respectively engenders. An alternative is posited in the form of radical assimilation, a theory borrowing the best elements from both approaches. The remainder of the study is focussed on the search for personal and iconographic strategies to pursue a politic of radical assimilation in my creative production. These strategies are finally exemplified and manifested via discussions of the practical corpus of artworks that aided in the formation of this politic. The discursive framework in which this theorization occurs includes considerations of queer theory and photography (especially domestic photography and portraiture) and subjective contextualization (invoking the domestic uses of images), and all should be seen as constituting a personal discursive framework: an attempt to counter the reductive scope an uncontextualised analysis of my work allows. This study is accordingly an explication of the processes that turn the personal into the political; a critical affirmation of difference; and an attempt to narrow the distances between us.

The Douglas Summerland Collection is a fictional "monographically based history"1. In essence this research is concerned with the current debates about history recording, authenticity of the photograph, methods of history construction and how the audience digests new 'knowledge'. The narrative for this body of work is drawn from a small album of maritime photographs discovered in 2004 within the archives of the Port Chalmers Regional Maritime Museum in New Zealand. The album contains vernacular images of life onboard several sailing ships from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the DH Sterling and the William Mitchell. Through investigating the'truth' systems promoted by the photograph within the presentations of histories this research draws a link between the development of colonialism and the perception of photography. It also deliberates on how 'truth' perception is still a major part of an audience's knowledge base. 1. Anne-Marie Willis Picturing Australia: A History of Photography, Angus & Robertson Publishers, London. 1988:253