Month: September 2017

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Identifying the Self through IDs

In the third chapter of her book, Karen Strassler discusses the role of the identification photograph and how this impacted Java and its culture and history. Not only did the governments obsession with identification cards cause an expansion in the photography realm, but they also impacted the local communities and created a new form of history whereby people could use the photos in family rituals and to have a closer connection to the past. “But as these projects were generalised and normalised, I argue, the identity photograph became a widespread idiomatic shorthand for citizenship or legitimate belonging in the state-authorised national community.” Here, the author is showing that as this process became normalized throughout the culture, a new historical narrative was being created and the concept of identity was now largely embraced and maintaining through photographic evidence. 

While reading this, I was reminded of the lecture our class attended by Professor Lyon Barco on “Capturing the Sacred: American Photography and Mexican Farmworkers”. His lecture showed how the use of photography was able to depict how life was for many people, but also the ways in which photographs can display a certain image that the photography wanted his audience to see. Strassler’s book linked to this notion of heritage and historical narrative by emphasising the important role of visual history and how this sense allows us to have a personal attachment to a photograph and how we perceive it. Reflecting on these experiences, I began to think of my own interactions with identification cards. I am not an American citizen, but on a daily basis if I am asked to show some from of identification, I will always present my American driving license over my British one. Both are just as valid as the other, but I have assumed a new identity by coming over to this country, and I almost feel more comfortable presenting the American license over the British as I am less likely to be questioned about it and have to reveal personal information. I had personally never even thought about why I value the American one over the British, but now i can see that each identification card holds a different identity, made up of different experiences and interactions with people. It is interesting to see the relationship between my identity, and a government mandated form of identification, as before I had never thought about how the cultural influences of my daily and personal life could shape the ways I think about and use photography. 

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No idea should be silenced

Kirsten Weld describes the events that occurred in Guatemala after the war, where documents were found and released showing that the government had only released data that backed up their beliefs, and shunned any evidence that showed their cruel and naive treatment of its citizens. Weld shows that through a shift in the way archives were treated and maintained, the people of Guatemala were able to show their side of the historical events, and they were able to keep their story and memories alive through expressing their own interpretations of the events and making sure that people had access to multiple different narratives. “Memory is less a filing cabinet that we open to examine a pre-selected file (my childhood, the war) than a book we are waiting and editing.” (Weld, 48) Although the people of this nation had suffered a horrific loss, they pushed for people to fight for different ideas and not to just follow the thoughts of people in higher positions that were being dictated to them.

While reading this, I thought back to Trouillot’s article where he argues that the past is a particular “bundle of silences”. History is made up of select pieces of information that people wish to remember, and the narratives are created through the lenses in which one wants to perceive a particular event. We must be careful not to shun people for expressing their opinions on something, and instead embrace the different points of view and challenge the existing order of a historical event and create a more realistic depiction of what happened. 

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Everyone is a critic

Benjamin’s argues in the exert from his book “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” that throughout history, each sources gives us a different perspective of the event that occurred and enables the viewer to interpret the past from the eyes of the creator.

“For example, in photography, process reproduction can bring out those aspects of the original that are unattainable to the naked eye yet accessible to the lens, which is adjustable and chooses its angle at will. And photographic reproduction, with the aid of certain processes, such as enlargement or slow motion, can capture images which escape natural vision.” (Benjamin, 220)

However, although technological advancements such as cameras allowed people to truly depict a scene of what happened in the past, each source is again subject to how the viewer wishes to perceive it. I believe this reading neatly connects to Halbwach’s argument that our immediate environments have the ability to influence and manipulate our memories. Our social context control, too, the ways in which we perceive an event to have happened and to draw conclusions from different sources such as paintings, photographs, and visual performances. Each source is subject to some form of bias, either from the creator themselves, or those who are viewing them. With the multitude of sources that are available for us to narrate the past, the beholder now become a ‘critic’, where he/or she is able to create a narrative from which they believe is what was occurring in a specific source. We hand the responsibly of maintaining history away from those who actually experienced it themselves, to instead every person in the modern era, allowing them to critique and analyse the sources as they will, creating their own conclusions.

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Pondering the Past

Trouillot raises the interesting problem of how history is produced, and he argues that any historical narrative is a particular “bundle of silences”. The four silences involved in history are: the sources (the moment of fact creation), the archives (the moment of fact assembly), the narratives (the moment of fact retrieval), and the history (the moment of retrospective significance). All of these aspects of historical narratives demonstrate the relationship between power and history, and that power does not enter a story once and for all, but instead it comes in at different times and different angles to each historical narrative. Each ‘silence’ shows the multitude of ways where elements of history are forgotten or dismissed in favour of promoting a certain image of a time or place.

I found this reading very applicable to the education system I have received growing up. In history classes, we were always taught by focusing on literature and documentation that was produced by predominantly white males with some form of authority. This makes me question my own understanding of history and what truly happened in the past. Is there ever a way to fully understand what event have occurred? Each narrative of a certain historical issues has a different perspective. All that historians can do is try to find as many perspectives on the one event and attempt to piece together both sides of the argument in hope that they can present enough facts to describe the actions that occurred. What is taught in the classrooms is never the fully story, but is there even a real way in which we can understand history? Every narrative is subject to bias in some shape or form. Trouillot’s words have pushed me to further question my perceptions around historical readings, and to ponder what arguments truly reflect the events that took place.

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Halbwachs Collective Memory

Halbwachs main argument appears to be that memory is a social product and that the individual memory is dependent on society. He argues that our ‘collective memories’ are influenced by the environment around us and that the collective (i.e. family, class, nation, religious identity) decides for us what is valuable to remember. “We find ourselves to be part of a group where our position is determined not by personal feelings but by rules and customs independent of us that existed before us.” (Halbwach, 55) Here, he is suggesting the collective memory not only tells the members of its community or society what they can remember, but that it is also controlling how an individual recalls a certain event and the details involved. 

I agree with Halbwachs argument that our immediate environments have the ability to influence and manipulate our memories. Humans are innately social creatures whose primary objective is to find a group or community where which they feel a sense of belonging. This neatly ties into his theory of the “collective memory” whereby our memories are a social product that depend on our relationships with other humans to be constructed in a certain way. Social interactions deeply fascinate me as I the human personality is so intricate and we are always so concerned nowadays with our identities and how we see ourselves, yet we also adjust our characterises and behaviours often depending on the group of people we are with. Do core value systems truly exist? Can something be said to represent your belief system when we can’t even be sure that we have one? Why does the construction of our identity become so fluid over time? All of these questions deeply intrigue me, and I look forward to learning more about them.