Colonialist Photography: Imag(in)ing Race and Place

Colonialist Photographyis an absorbing collection of essays and photographs exploring the relationship between photography and Europe and American colonialism. The book is packed with well over a hundred captivating images ranging from the first experiments with photography as a documentary medium up to the decolonization of many regions after World War II. Reinforcing a broad range of Western assumptions and prejudices, such images often assisted in the construction of a colonial culture. In these thirteen essays,ColonialistPhotographyconsiders: How photographs tended to support the cultural and political rhetoric of racial and geographical difference between the West and its colonies; The range of images from "scientific" categorizing and recording methods to "commercial" pictures for collection and display, such as postcards and magazine advertisements; How photographers contributed to cultural, social, and political ideas of race byhighlighting racial distinction in their work. By drawing upon methods from anthropology, literary criticism, geography, imperial history, and art history, Hight and Sampson offer a rich source of current ideas about the relationship between colonialism and visual representation. Using case studies and recent forms of interpretive analysis, these post-colonial readings provide a thought-provoking analysis of how we imagine race and place. Now published for the first time in paperback.