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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=812295520-29102008><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>This posting has made me pause to think, and overall I
think Rodney's argument is both persuasive and founded. At the same time, I
think there may be some exceptional cases where personal photographs
are definitely not intended for public consumption. At least one extreme example
comes to mind.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=812295520-29102008><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=812295520-29102008><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>When I attended the GLBT Archives Libraries Museums and
Special Collections (GLBT ALMS) Conference in New York City in the
spring, one speaker, Nicholas Matte, a PhD candidate at the University of
Toronto, spoke about his research into transgender and transsexual archives. He
explained that some transitioning people keep photographic evidence of their
physical transformation through hormonal therapy and sexual reassignment
surgery. These photographs of the subjects' bodies are intended
to keep a record of the physical transformation process, and also to
help the transitioning individuals see the often minute changes that
occur in their bodies over time. These photographs are sometimes shared with
other people who are going through sexual reassignment, but only as a means
to help them better understand the process they are about to experience, and the
photographs, as a rule, are never intended to be shared with the general public.
In fact, privacy issues and access restrictions for these records
become key points in negotiations with archival
repositories.</FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=fr dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>De :</B>
personal_archives-bounces@mailman.yale.edu
[mailto:personal_archives-bounces@mailman.yale.edu] <B>De la part de</B> Rodney
Carter<BR><B>Envoyé :</B> 27 octobre 2008 10:53<BR><B>À :</B>
Personal_archives@mailman.yale.edu<BR><B>Objet :</B> Re:
[Personal_archives] Photography and Personal Archives<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>
<DIV>I have been long fascinated by the private/public nature of personal
photographs, snapshots in particular. While these images often appear to be
giving viewers glances into the intimate and private worlds of those depicted,
they are created for consumption - to be placed in frames and albums to be
viewed by others who may not necessarily be a member of the familial circle of
those depicted in the images. While there are certain treasured photographs that
do not get put out for public display, I think that the majority of photographs
are created for public viewing and this greatly effects the types of images
taken and the poses adopted by those depicted. Sitters are purposefully creating
certain types of depictions of themselves to be viewed by others . This process
might very well be unconscious but it certainly occurs - which Catherine,
following Chambers, points out - look to any archival collection of personal
photographs and you will see the same motifs and types of images appearing over
and over, across a large period of time. <BR><BR>Would it be too far to
state that photographs are inherently public documents which only have the sheen
of the private? I think it is this appearance of privacy is what makes them so
compelling, so arresting, and which uniquely imbues them with Barthes' punctum.
The appearance of privacy makes us overlook how these photos may have displayed
or otherwise used by their creators. We feel, coming across them in archives,
that we are given access to something secret or intimate.<BR><BR>I have to cut
my response short for the moment but will definitely return to the idea of
personal photographs as prompts for
conversations.<BR><BR>Rodney<BR><BR> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid"><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT><BR>First I want to thank Catherine Hobbs for this kind
invitation into the<BR>archivists' realm, a place where I have made many
fruitful discoveries<BR>in the past, having found the subject of /Suspended
Conversations/ in<BR>the Notman Photographic Archives here in Montreal. Her
welcoming remarks<BR>about the navigations between private and public realms
take me back to<BR>those days, and the first recognition that we should not
consider<BR>photographs and albums in a public collection as private, but
as<BR>inhabiting and informing a space between the private and the
public<BR>realms. So the first question that I am considering is: how do we
frame<BR>that space; how do we define it? I would like to establish a
framework<BR>that has some solid features, before we begin to talk about its
porous<BR>boundaries, shifts, and fissures. Barthes helps us to understand
the<BR>sense of loss that inhabits that place, but if it were strictly
morbid,<BR>always as sad as /Camera Lucida/, I don't think many of would want
to<BR>stay there, work there, root our lives there. There is pleasure in
this<BR>place. Can we also talk about that, as a product of the imagination,
as<BR>a prompt for conversation? After all, that's what we're
having.<BR><BR>Martha</BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>Welcome to our second SISPA listserv discussion on
the topic of Photography and Personal Archives. </FONT><BR><FONT
face=Arial size=2>I'd like to give a very warm welcome to our guest
experts Martha Langford (of Concordia) and Alison Nordstrom (of George Eastman
House). We are also happy to be joined by a number of their graduate
students. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>The readings for this week were not explicitly
directed at archivists though there are a number of archival concerns and
criticisms of archival practices which are hinted at within the articles or
which hover as a ghostly presence. More than that, though, the articles
and the website raise a wealth of concepts and practices which we can take and
debate in terms of dealing with archival creators and their personal photographs
and perhaps extend these to look at their fonds' more broadly. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'd like to start by acknowledging that at the basis
of many of these discussions is the very visceral way in which people react to
photographs (acknowledged at many points: particularly in Chambers'
article and in the mentions of Barthes' concerns). This is, obviously, one
of the primary factors differentiating photographs from other types of archival
material created by people, for people and often about people. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>As a way in, I'd like to invite further discussion on
the emphasis on the private vs. the public sphere. This emerges strongly
from Chambers' discussion of encoding private space and the family with broader
social/cultural norms. She mentions the use of very similar sets of poses,
photographing "important" events, interior space, the "feminine sphere" of the
home (though a home without housework) and photographing images of our
consumerism. The references to Barthes in Martha's paper lead us to a very
different 'privacy' that of the<I> punctum</I>: the realm of private
feeling. In particular, the feeling of the temporal punctum in which the
individual feels a shock that the person in the photograph is very likely
dead. Very broadly, these two realms of public encoding of the private
life and the private encountering seem very central to the archival concerns
with respect to photographs. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>Looking forward to this week and to hearing what you
have to say...</FONT> <BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>Warmly,</FONT>
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