CCD international seminars: Expanding the Kodak Zone: Vernacular Photography and Imperial Encounter in the Philippine-American War

Silvan Neidermeier is senior lecturer at the University of Erfurt (Germany). In his talk he discusses the multifold uses of vernacular photography in the Philippine-American War (1899-1902). Based on private photographs created by white and Black U.S. soldiers as well as Philippine revolutionaries, it will show that vernacular photography provided a means for both reifying white imperial subject position and substantiating non-white and anti-imperial subject positions. Rather than acting as a unilateral “tool of empire” (Paul S. Landau), vernacular photography enabled historical actors to place themselves in and support narratives of white imperial conquest, Black military self-affirmation and Philippine anti-colonial nation building. A close reading of vernacular photographs of the Philippine-American War thus allows reconstructing both the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic function of photography in the age of imperialism. 

Chair: Radu Dinu

Zoom: https://ju-se.zoom.us/j/61397452875