In The Photographing Other Histories exhibition, the photographs of indigenous families will be examined and compared with each other. A variety of photographic images dating from the late nineteenth century South American region, including the work of Peruvian, Chilean, and Italians photographers, will be explored. The various social and cultural backgrounds of each of these photographers contributes to the differences in the style of pose, backdrop settings, clothing, and props of each photograph. Because some of these photographers come from Europe and others from South America, their visual representations of indigenous families differ; each photographer tells a different part of an indigenous families’ history.
In her book “Figueroa Aznar and the Cusco Indigenistas: Photography and Modernism in Early Twentieth-Century Peru,” Deborah Poole claims that Andean people are seen as an “other” for European audiences that include photographers, travelers, intellectuals, as well as institutions. Poole explains the idea of indigenismo—the movement that encouraged the protection of native people and mestizo culture using contemporary concepts of identity. The movement gained lots of headway in Cusco because of the administrative, political, and military center of the Inca Empire, an indigenous civilization that arose in the Peruvian highlands in the early thirteenth century. The representation of the “New Indian” through photographs included mestizo elements because of the nature of the modern time period. This avant-garde concept stemmed from European philosophy from the nineteenth century. Also inspired by Europeans was the ever-changing culture, emphasizing the mestizo nature of the avant-garde movement; however, this movement did not copy European modernism.
This exhibition will present some of the complexities of Andean indigenous groups’ post-colonial identities that are expressed through photographic media. The various photographers with different backgrounds portray each family in a different, yet still Latin American and mestizo, light.
Some of the first representations of indigenous families included a type of art known as Casta paintings (Fig. 6) particularly produced in New Spain, contemporary Mexico, during the eighteenth century. These paintings are some of the first portrayals of native families that European audiences accessed through prints. In her article “Corporeal Concerns: Eighteenth-Century Casta paintings and Colonial Bodies in Spanish Texas,” Diana DiPaolo Loren explains that not only do these paintings explore concepts of race, but also, they contribute to the historical context of the mestizo or indigenous family and societies. The Casta paintings depicted native identities in their domestic spaces and everyday lives. At the same time, the paintings did not completely encapsulate the native, colonial experience, and they cannot be taken as fact since they were influenced by and painted particularly by colonizers and some locals who were heavily influenced by European artistic training, languages of representation, and art forms arising in transplanted to the New World. Taking into account this article, while exploring this exhibit, one must remember that these photographs tell merely a fragment of the story of the families in them, because of the ideas of race and “othering” through visual representation. Even still, they are valuable to examine and compare when discussing the concept of the representation of indigenous families. The images will have a description detailing the indigenous family and backdrop (if applicable), who had access to the paintings, the history of the photographer, as well as an analysis of how it varies from other photographs.
This exhibit is available to view by the public and especially helpful to scholars studying the portrayal of indigenous families in photographs in the nineteenth century Americas. After exploring the photographs presented in this section of the exhibit, one will understand how indigenous photographs vary from one to another, depending on the photographer’s artistic training, social background, and culture of origin.
Fig. 1 Antonio Pozzo. The family of Cacique Vicente Catrunau Pincén.
Image Descriptions
Most of the photographers who took pictures of nineteenth century Argentina were foreigners, usually Europeans. Photographer Antonio Pozzo was originally from Italy. He moved to Argentina in 1852 when he was young and became one of the most important photographers of this country in the nineteenth century. After registering events such as the inauguration of the Railroad West and joining Julio Argentino Roca’s 1879 Desert Conquest exploration, Pozzo became interested in photographing native people in colonized territories including indigenous representations in the province of La Pampa and Santa Fe, in Argentina. He brought his supplies for developing negatives with him—cameras, tripods, glass, and chemicals for development. Pozzo mostly photographed indigenous leaders with spears, representations of lower-class people within their culture, as well as priests baptizing children. The locals in La Pampa were not at war; instead, he focused on portraying the indigenous people from an apparent “neutral” perspective.
However, Deborah Poole claims that in Cusco, Peru, there is no such thing as “neutral” photography, since the nature of this increasingly popular form of artistic expression was heavily influenced by Western knowledge and culture. As a technology of representation, photography is associated with colonial expansion, as well as globalization of European culture, so inherently in these images, there is an evident European perspective. Applying the concept of “neutral” photography to Pozzo’s images in La Pampa, he did not achieve his goal of representing indigenous people without a bias.
The persons in this picture are the family of Cacique Vicente Catrunau Pincén (Fig.1). He is a member of the Tehuelche ethnic group, a mestizo man. This is the last picture of himself with his family. There is no backdrop in this picture; none of the family members are smiling, and he holds his youngest child. They appear to be posing for a picture, but they don’t have any specific clothes offering material evidence of their cultural traditions, so it is not a theatrical composition. This Italian photographer with a European formation made the family of the Cacique to pose in a natural way, with the baby’s expression being one displeased. Elements in this photograph provide insight into the dominant European influence in Pozzo’s understanding of the uses of photographic media.
Today, one can visit Pozzo’s photographs in the Museo Roca - Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fig.2. Guido Boggiani. Chamacoco communities
Guido Boggiani (1861-1902), was an Italian explorer, photographer, and ethnographer. From 1888 to 1902, he produced more than 500 photographs of the Chamacoco communities in Gran Chaco region in Paraguay. He learned to paint at the Accademia di Brera in Milan under Italian artist Filippo Carcano and became a prominent landscape painter. Beginning his Latin American journey in Argentina, Boggiani adopted some of the intellectual values of artists in the end of nineteenth century culturally active Buenos Aires. Next, he moved to Gran Chaco region, a sparsely populated semi-arid lowland natural region of the Rio de la Plata basin divided among Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. There Boggiani lived with the Chamacoco indigenous communities; during the time that he photographed and painted them, Europeans were invading the indigenous communities’ territories. They dampened their traditions, as well as destroyed parts of the land itself. Boggiani is responsible for photographing the live changes in the Chamacoco culture at the end of the nineteenth century, when ideas of national identity and unity were prevalent in Paraguay. After returning to Italy for a while, he came back to Paraguay with new European technology with a camera, tripod, and other materials to develop negatives. The locals had never seen technology like that before; lining up with his arrival with the new equipment, the Chamacoco communities had a surge in sickness and ended up killing him because they believed him to be a witch for bringing his cameras.
The family in this picture poses in front of a natural background, holding flowers. The father wears a sort of traditional loincloth, highlighting his indigenous identity. The European and Argentinian influences can be seen in this photograph because of the advanced, at this time, technological use of negatives, as well as the native dress of the loincloth and the people holding wildflowers. The poses are not theatrical, but the smiley expression of the tall man demonstrates that he was asked to pose for the camera.
Today, these negatives taken by Boggiani can be seen in the Náprstek Museum in Prague, Czech Republic.
Fig. 3. Gustavo Milet. Mapuche Indigenous Family
Gustavo Milet (1860-1917), a Chilean photographer, developed part of his professional practice with the Mapuche Indigenous people in Traiguén, in the Araucanía region of central Chile. He grew up and studied in Valparaiso, Chile. The photographs he took of the Mapuche people were developed in an era of colonization of the Mapuche territory at the end of the nineteenth century; Milet completely immersed himself in these people’s culture while studying them, taking an ethnographic approach. Milet mostly took pictures of Mapuche women with a Western pose—looking straight on at the camera or three-quarters of the way turned. The photographs taken of these native women were then sold as postcards to Europeans; he specifically sold them without their names, grouping the collection of photographs known as “Indios Araucanos de Traiguén.” According to scholar Marcela Orellana Muermann, these women were “separated from their daily lives” and became “civilized” by Milet.[3] Milet’s use of costumes creates a theatrical element in the photographs. On one hand, Muermann explains, there is an “exotic element” and another “feral” element that needs to be guided towards civilization. These photographs become an act of conquest because Milet’s goal is to document and “civilize” them into Chilean culture.[4]
This photograph in particular, taken in 1890, illustrates the posed, theatrical elements of a familial picture. A woman to the left bends down, mixing something in a bowl and the woman to the left rolls’ dough out. Meanwhile, another woman holds a baby, staring straight at the camera. These three depictions of women cooking reinforce the societal standards of women at this time: that they take care of domestic tasks. The use of a backdrop of nature emphasizes the natural, native; yet, artificial, because of his nationality, nature of the Mapuche people. There is a difference in intention when reproducing this photo compared to the European photographers’: that this picture attempted to civilize native Mapuche people, while the Europeans were used for ethnographic studies and art collections that began to be important in European museums.
Today, this photograph can be seen in The British Museum in London, England.
Fig. 4. Martin Chambi. Alcalde de Tinta and his Family
Martín Chambi (1891-1973), a Peruvian photographer born from a Quechua-speaking peasant family in the southern region of Puno, sought to photograph indigenous, “authentic” native people. Chambi first became interested in photography at the age of fourteenth while working at the British Mining Company Santo Domingo where his father also worked. There, he came across two British company photographers, Angus and Ferrin, who introduced him to the functioning and use of the photographic camera. Chambi then moved to Arequipa to study art. After becoming an assistant to Max T. Vargas, he then opened an art school in Cusco called La Academia de Artes Plásticas del Cusco. He sought to identify various ethnicities and print them to be offered to European and North American travelers. Most of his captures were staged with a background. He was one of the greatest figures in indigenismo, a local movement that developed during the first half of the twentieth century throughout Latin America. It emphasized the importance of a regional identity originating from indigenous cultural forms and the dominant presence of indigenous people in local politics. Chambi’s representation of this movement was not realistic nor did it demonstrate how indigenous identities are constructed by society. Instead, he created a theatrical, romanticized image of the native people, creating his imagined construction of them. His vision of indigenous people varies from that of the Europeans in that it portrays the modern native person from the perspective of someone from the city. This combination of backgrounds and specific settings creates the modernized indigenismo.
This photograph contains the theatrical elements of a staged one with the props in the hands of the man on the left and the child on the right, as well as the hats. He idealizes the look of native people with the costuming and sophisticated poses. This photographic representation of an indigenous family is similar to the pioneer of family representation in the Casta paintings. Note: the description on this photograph says it is from “Tinto,” but upon further research, the town is called Tinta.
Fig. 5 Gustavo Milet. Mapuche Family
The Chilean photographer Gustavo Milet from Valparaiso, Chile also photographed families in outdoor settings without elaborate props and backdrops. The Mapuche people viewed photography with “what they know and what they believe” (Muermann 240). They had an oral tradition of passing down history; they do not have a written nor a photographic history. A Mapuche person explains that “photographs are memories of what one is left with when one dies” (Muermann 241). They can jump through time and see others through a specific age and year. At first read, getting to hold onto this memory forever seems like a beautiful innovation, but their native culture was infiltrated by Western culture. It creates questions of ethics and imposing Western culture and values of visual memorabilia onto native Latin American cultures. To what extent should photographers and ethnographers incorporate their Western technology into native cultures? One must remember that this photograph was taken by an artist, not an anthropologist, and that there were not tight ethical guidelines for conducting ethnographies. The people in this photograph did not have control over this documentation.
This photograph of the family in the outside air directly contrasts his other photograph of a family dressed up inside with a specific backdrop. These people do not hold special props, nor are they acting in a certain way to pose for the picture. They are simply living through Milet’s lens. Milet controlled who was in each photo, as well as their backdrop; the subjects had no agency over how they were portrayed. This lack of control over their bodies demonstrates a conquest of the Mapuche people through photography. Not only do Europeans impose their photography onto native people, but also Latin American photographers.
Fig. 6 Anon., De Español, y Yndia, sale Mestizo [From a Spanish Man, and an Indian Woman, Comes a Mestizo]. Mexico, early eighteenth century. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum, New York, Bequest of Samuel E. Haslett and Charles A. Schieren, gift of Alfred T. White and Otto H. Kahn through the Committee for the Diffusion of French Art, by exchange, 2011.86.1.
References
Aumesquet Nosea, Santiago. “Reseña Del Libro ‘Fotografía Proindigenista. El Discurso De Gustavo Millet Sobre Los Mapuches’. Alonso Azócar Avendaño, 2005.” IC Revista Científica de Información y Comunicación 3 (2005): 215–16.
“‘Con El Foco En La Frontera’, Exhibición Del Museo Roca.” Museo Roca - Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas. Ministerio de Cultura Argetina. Accessed February 11, 2023. https://museoroca.cultura.gob.ar/noticia/con-el-foco-en-la-frontera-exhibicion-del-museo-roca/.
Coronado, Jorge. “The Andes Imagined: Indigenismo, Society, and Modernity .” Hispanic American Historical Review. 90, no. 4 (November 1, 2010): 727–28. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-2010-067.
“Guido Boggiani.” Pueblos Originarios Biografías. Accessed February 11, 2023. https://pueblosoriginarios.com/biografias/boggiani.html.
“Historia De Martín Chambi, El Primer Fotógrafo Indigenista.” Machu Picchu Perú Tours, February 26, 2022. https://www.machupicchuperutours.com/guia-de-viajes/historia-martin-chambi/.
Historia del Perú. “Martín Chambi.” Historia del Perú, February 26, 2022. https://historiaperuana.pe/biografia/martin-chambi.
Josef Opatrný; Guido Boggiani: Photographer. Hispanic American Historical Review. 1 May 1998; 78 (2): 322–323. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-78.2.322.
Martins, Luciana. “Skin, Paper, Tiles: A Cross-Cultural History of Kadiwéu Art.” Journal of Material Culture 23, no. 3 (2018): 344–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183518782713.
Muermann, Marcella Orellana. “Ojos Chilenos y Mapuches: La Fotografía Sobre El Mapuche De Gustave Milet De Fines Del XIX.” Muiraquitã - Revista de Letras e Humanidades 2, no. 1 (2013): 233–43. https://doi.org/10.29327/210932.2.1-11.
“Photographic Print (Black and White); Cabinet Card: British Museum.” The British Museum. Accessed February 13, 2023. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/EA_Am-B5-18.
Poole, Deborah. “Figueroa Aznar and the Cusco Indigenistas: Photography and Modernism in Early Twentieth-Century Peru.” Representations, no. 38 (1992): 39–75. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928684.
Priamo, Luis. “La Fotografía Italiana En La Argentina SIGLOS XVIII / XIX Benito Panunzi.” Fundación Proa. Accessed February 10, 2023. http://www.proa.org/exhibiciones/pasadas/-italianos/fotografia/fotografia.html.
Loren, Diana DiPaolo. “Corporeal Concerns: Eighteenth-Century Casta Paintings and Colonial Bodies in Spanish Texas.” Historical Archaeology 41, no. 1 (2007): 23–36. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25617423.
“Vicente Catrunau Pincén.” Pueblos Originarios Biografías. Accessed February 11, 2023. https://pueblosoriginarios.com/biografias/pincen.html.