SPOŁECZNE BIOGRAFIE ZDJĘĆ TERENOWYCH, CZYLI ANTROPOLOGIA WIZUALNA ARCHIWALNEJ FOTOGRAFII
SOCIAL BIOGRAPHIES OF FIELD PHOTOGRAPHS OR VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Summary/Abstract: The text deals with one of the most important issues in visual anthropology which is the analysis of archival field photographs made by ethnographers. The first part of the paper provides an overview and critical assessment of major projects in this area, and the second – an analysis of the circulation of Bronisław Malinowski’s field photographs. This project is done in the theoretical frame of the studies of the materiality of photographs and social biographies of things. The text shows what happens with the anthropological field photos, how they „present” themselves in books, albums, exhibitions, documentaries, how they change their meanings according to the context of what is „next to” them, with what they interact in new assemblages, how they are „read” by various „audiences”, and how they provoke conflicts and disputes, or open up new spaces of analysis. The author also analyses the issue of moving from the private archives to public and vice versa, and the effects of digitisation.

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