Module 2, Post 1

Call me crazy, but I’m going to switch gears.

After watching videos, browsing journals, and wondering what langauge/group I wanted to focus on, I decided to head back to what’s close to my heart: photography. I’m going to research photography (and photographs) in relation to aboriginal identity.

One theorist/critic whose work will help guide my research and my work is Theresa Harlan. She has this to say about photography:

“Creating a visual history – and its representation – from Native memories or from Western myths: this is the question before Native image-makers and photographers today. The contest remains over who will image – and own – this history. Before too many assumptions are made, we must define history, define whose history it is, and define its purpose, as well as the tools used for the telling of it. The intent of history is to help us keep our bearings. That is, to know what is significant and, most importantly, to teach us how to recognize the significant. What happens when history is skewed, or when we no longer have the same skills of recognition? We as human beings become disabled by the inability to distinguish what is real from what is not…” (1995).

Self-representation is, of course, at the heart of my work. The camera (and photographs) can be an empowering tool, but the camera (and photographs) can also be used to misrepresent. Add to this the current digital environment and the problems of misrepresenting others, of stealing cultural property and of cheapening and devaluing a cultural identity become much larger and more global in nature (no one can really control or police the internet). This is where I believe creative commons may play a role, but that’s something I’ll have to do a little more research on.

You can count this as my weblog #2, post 1 or maybe even my statement…though in all fairness I have gone in a whole other direction than what I was originally considering. So weblog 2, post 1 it is!

Languages are fun, but photography is something I hold in just as high esteem. The visual representation of a culture, to my way of thinking, is as important as its language. A photograph is like a small statement made by a person about something they saw and lived; or it can be as fictitious as the story of Jack killing the giant.