Module 4, Post 2

I was getting a little fed up of reading the same theorists over and over again in their varying works. It’s a good thing I can also read Spanish. I found a fascinating work about indigenous people in photographs from Chile.

The official title is “Dentro y fuera de cuadro. Representacion y alteridad en la fotografia de indigenas de Chile.” The rough translation is “Inside and outside the frame. Representation and the other in photography of the indigenous of Chile.”

In many ways it’s a refreshing look at this topic. I was getting tired of so many of the North American theorists hammering away at the same topic, so that at the end I’ve felt like I’ve been staring at a rather mashed up antecedent that’s more difficult to recognize for what it used to be.

The approach Alvarez and Zunino have in their work is less vitriolic and tries to dignify indigeneity in a way that seems lacking by so many of the theorists of North America. One quick comparison: they never talk about the faustian contract or the deconstruction of the “noble savage”. Their approach is more or less along the lines of “re-presenting” that is to give the remaining indigenous people the opportunity to represent themselves in their space in a way they best see fit, not in a way that the dominant society has represented them.