Content

More and more often historical photographs can be found in public spaces. A growing number of pictures are used in exhibitions, books and documentaries on historical topics. “Old” photographs are the raw material in advertising, for decorating hotels, restaurants, and business premises, and for design material.

Why this increased focus on a pictorial past? Digital storage media and the Internet have simplified access to historical photographs and made it easier to process them. However, this is by no means the only reason. The photographs that seem to take us effortlessly into a bygone world touch us, they trigger feelings in us. Currently we are experiencing a general “historicising”. However, the only thing a photograph can offer is a manipulated view of a world that we do not or no longer understand.

Objectives

In small groups we investigate the effect of this mostly monochrome world of images and create a story, a script, out of the emotions triggered by the pictures. The experience of individuals in the small groups is processed by the whole group during the presentation of the posters: the immense variety of scripts or stories drawn from the same set of photographs shows how dependent the meaning of the motifs is on script, sequence, processing, and text. Even photographs that are meant to show “how it was” allow an enormous range of interpretations, even ones that are diametrically opposed to each other. When visiting exhibitions, looking at historical documentations and reading books amply illustrated with historical photographs, the central questions to bear in mind should always be: why this form of presentation? What does it want to achieve?

Expert knowledge, which will only be accessible after the presentations, serves to show how important it is for understanding historical photographs to know both the history of photography and the circumstances of the creation and use of the pictures.

The aim is to make the participants aware just how much even historical photographs depend on their presentation and to sharpen their attention. At the same time, it should encourage them to gain a new understanding of the pictures by bringing in additional information.

Organisation

Exercise 1
Group work
Get the participants to form small groups of no more than five people. Each group receives an identical set of historical photographs. They work with photocopies or good quality prints in A4 size. It is important to use photographs taken in different periods and showing different motifs. To involve the participants more strongly you can ask them to bring along pictures of their own. In any case they should be photographs you can talk about: who, when, why, what, what for …

Each group then creates a small exhibition. There are no guidelines. Title, selection and processing of the pictures is left entirely to the participants, i.e. they are free to cut out, emphasise or alter the pictures any way they want. Looking at the (unknown) pictures, the group agrees on a “script” and realises it on one or more posters. After an hour, the “exhibitions” should be ready for presentation, i.e. the pictures mounted, titles or legends written out, if used.

Now the groups present their posters. Important points are the underlying concept and the manner of realising it. After each group presentation, the other groups can ask questions or comment on the exhibition. This is followed by an analysis of the pictures used in the context of the exhibitions. Detail and expert knowledge of the moderator as well as that of participants is used to open up the world of the pictures used in different ways. Depending on education level and knowledge, information about the development of photographic technology, the history of dress, local and regional history, family history and many other areas can be employed to gain a deeper understanding of the pictures themselves, to give the depicted people and objects a history and to endow it all with emotions.

Exercise 2 
Intensification
Use the photograph Image 5 (cf. Volume I, p. 157) for an introductory role play. Again participants work in small groups recreating the picture of the two boys. If available, digital cameras can be used. The important thing is that the groups try to recreate the situation and especially the posture as accurately as possible. Every group member should try out all three positions, those of the two boys as well as that of the photographer.

Now use the plenum to bring some order into the impressions of the “actors”. At the same time try to describe the two boys: self-assured/insecure, poor/rich … Then use the information on page 125 of the textbook to inform the group about the role of the two boys and the photographer and compare it with the impressions of the participants.

The pictures on pages 154–156 can be used to analyse the poses in more detail. Under the title “Putting yourself in the picture” a number of topics are available. In addition to a general analysis of the function and/or the rationale for portraits, you can point to the bourgeoisie as a new clientele after nobility. Using the pictures in the book you can easily show how the use of props and poses has continued with little change and to point to the almost identical pictorial language of early photographers. This part can very well be combined with the workshops of Margareta Gynning (p. 18) and Eva Saro (p. 22).

To conclude, or as a variation, you could work with the “forged photographs” on page 165. These imperfect manipulations can be used to start debates in several directions. They range from the “right to your own picture” to ever more perfect image manipulation with digital pictures. The “tales of confusion” on the Action CD, which combine historical photographs in a virtual exhibition with various texts, further demonstrate the dependence of the pictures on the text.

Questions

• Where in my vicinity are historical photographs used?
• What is my personal reaction when looking at these pictures?

• Why were the photographs presented in this way and where do I get further information?