Susie will examine the burdens of proof commonly placed on war photography and images from colonial contexts. She explores the tensions between photographs as 'evidence' and the more complex histories of violence and resistance that photography can reveal.
Location: Annie Wyatt Room at the National Trust Centre
The magnificent and ruthless Tipu Sultan (1751-1799) of the Indian Kingdom of Mysore rose to power in the 1780s. At that time, India controlled 25% of world trade, and 80% of Britain's lucrative India trade concerned finely crafted textiles. France, too, was importing thousands of metres of 'toiles Indiennes' in direct competition with its sworn enemy, the British East India Company. This talk will look at Tipu's focus on textiles, the regions involved, and the often overlooked methods of distribution and finance of the Indian master traders.
This presentation draws upon my dissertation titled “Death and Photography in East Asia: Funerary Use of Portrait Photography,” which compares the practice of funerary photo-portraiture in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam by examining the basic concepts underpinning it
When Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945, the inhabitants of this vast archipelago characterized by a profusion of religions, languages, and cultures had little in common with each other beyond a desire to throw off the yoke of colonial rule. Professor Strassler will discuss how popular photographic practices enabled a diverse collection of people in Indonesia to begin to see themselves as modern Indonesians.
