This presentation will introduce the work of Van Kinsbergen and investigate how his images shaped the visual identity of the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch colonial government engaged him as a ‘scientific photographer’ to document, amongst other things, Javanese antiquities.
Images of Peranakans from the dawn of photography to the present, expose the long and complex relationship between cameraman, camera and subject. The dynamic negotiations between these three principal elements produced diverse results.
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.
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
Professor Strassler will discuss how popular photographic practices enabled a diverse collection of people in Indonesia to begin to see themselves as modern Indonesians.
