N S , M U S E U M S A N D O T H E R SPECTACLES WERE NOT JUST REFLECTIONS OF THIS CERTAINTY, HOWEVER, BUT THE MEANS OF ITS PRODUCTION, BY THEIR T E C H N I Q U E O F R E N D E R I N G H I S T O R Y, P R O G R E S S , C U LT U R E A N D E M P I R E I N ‘OBJECTIVE FORM’. THEY WERE OCCASIONS FOR MAKING OF SUCH OBJECTIVE TRUTHS IN A WORLD WHERE TRUTH HAD BECOME A QUESTION OF WHAT HEIDEGGER CALLS ‘THE CERTAINTY OF REPRESENTATION’.” – MITCHELL
I SAY ABOUT IT ALL? WHAT CAN I WRITE YOU? AS YET I AM SCARCELY OVER THE INITIAL BEDAZZLEMENT…EACH DETAIL REACHES OUT TO GRIP YOU; IT PINCHES YOU; AND THE MOST YOU CONCENTRATE ON IT THE LESS YOU GRASP THE WHOLE. THEN GRADUALLY ALL THIS BECOMES HARMONIOUS AND THE PIECES FALL INTO PLACE OF THEMSELVES, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF PERSPECTIVE. BUT THE FIRST DAYS, BY GOD, IT IS SUCH A BEWILDERING CHAOS OF COLOURS…” – FLAUBERT, JANUARY 1850
WHO WENT ABROAD–TO VISIT PLACES WHOSE IMAGES INVARIABLY THEY HAD ALREADY SEEN IN PICTURES AND EXHIBITIONS? THEY WERE CONFUSED OF COURSE, BUT PERHAPS THE KEY TO THEIR CONFUSION WAS THIS: ALTHOUGH THEY THOUGHT OF THEMSELVES AS MOVING FROM THE PICTURES TO THE REAL THING, THEY WENT ON TRYING–AS FLAUBERT–TO GRASP THE REAL THING AS A PICTURE…THEY SET ABOUT TRYING TO DESCRIBE THE ORIENT AS THOUGH IT WERE AN EXHIBITION.” – STAGLE “EVERY YEAR PASSES YOU SEE THOUSANDS OF EUROPEANS TRAVELLING ALL OVER THE WORLD, AND EVERYTHING THEY COME ACROSS THY MAKE A PICTURE OF.” – EGYPTIAN JOURNALIST, 1896
is in fact travelling through time; he is exploring the past; every step he makes is the passing of an age.” – Degerando “…the modern navigators have only one objective when they describe the customs of new peoples; to complete the history of man.” –la Pérouse
Perspective / The Individual Spectator–The World Framed and Presented • Objectness–The World as Objects • Geography As Time Travel–The World as Completion of the Story of Man
E R I T A G E A S P H O T O G R A P H E R S – A D O C U M E N TAT I O N O F T H E W O R L D T H R O U G H T H E UNUSUAL, THE UNIQUE, THE EXOTIC, THE DIFFERENT. THIS WAS KNOWLEDGE, THIS WAS AND REMAINS THE WAY OF SPEAKING ABOUT THE WORLD–THROUGH DIFFERENCES AND DIFFERENTIATIONS, AND THROUGH A SILENCING OF THE COMMON, THE SHARED AND THE RECOGNISABLE. CLICHÉS ARE KNOWLEDGE, AND A KNOWLEDGE THAT IS CREATES TRUTHS, TRUTHS THAT THEN MOVE US TO TRAVEL, AND TO SEEK THESE TRUTHS, AND CONSTRUCT THEM WHEN WE CANNOT FIND THEM. CLICHÉS CONFIRM TRUTHS THAT THEN FURTHER CONFIRM THE SAME TRUTHS. THEY ARE THE TRUTH WORTHY OF BEING CONFIRMED.
WE TRAVEL, OR DESIRE TO PHOTOGRAPH A PLACE. WHEN WE ARRIVE THERE, WE SEE THE CHAOS, THE CONFUSION, BUT THEN WORK HARD TO ARRANGE THE IDEAL. ONCE WE FIND THE IDEAL–THE ASHRAM, THE SADHU, THE TEMPLE, THE MONKS, THESE ONLY CONFIRM THE TRUTHS WE HAD ONLY PREVIOUSLY SEEN IN ‘REPRESENTATIONS’ AND TAKEN AS TRUTHS WORTHY OF TRAVELING TOWARDS. CLICHÉS ARE TRUTH AND KNOWLEDGE AND OFTEN A KNOWLEDGE THAT MOTIVATES US TO SEEK, TO SEARCH, TO FIND AND TO CONSTRUCT. TODAY, PEOPLE SELF-REPRESENT THEMSELVES IN CLICHÉS TO ENCOURAGE TOURISM. THEY HIRE PROFESSIONALS TO RESEARCH THE IMAGINATIVE MYTHS THAT RESIDE IN THE MINDS-EYE OF THE RICH EUROPEAN, AND RE- C O N S T R U C T T H O S E M Y T H S F O R T H E I R PLEASURE. IT IS WHY ENTIRE CITIES AND LANDSCAPES ARE TRANSFORMED, OFTEN VIOLENTLY, TO CATER TO THIS IMAGINATIVE FORCE TO ACTION.
N D CULTURAL CLICHÉS ARE ALSO ACTS OF POWER–THE POWER TO REPRESENT, TO COAX, TO CREATE, TO ORGANISE THE W O R L D T O A C E R TA I N W AY O F S E E I N G I T O R SHOWING IT
THE TYPE THAT ARRIVED MUMMIFIED, OR SOARED UP FROM THE SAND. IN EVER MORE AGGRESSIVE ATTEMPTS TO ATTRACT TOURIST DOLLARS, EGYPT UNRIVALLED PHARAONIC TREASURES WERE GATED, PLASTIC-WRAPPED AND COMMODIFIED TO WITHIN AN INCH OF THEIR ANCIENT LIVES, THEN BUNDLED INTO CAREFULLY STERILISED VISITOR EXPERIENCE: A FOUR-OR-FIVE STAR HOTEL ON THE NILE, ORGANISED PLEXIGLASS TRIPS TO THE EGYPTIAN MUSEUMS AND GIZA PYRAMIDS, A FELUCCA ON THE RIVER AND THEN ON TO LUXOR, ASWAN OR SHARM EL-SHEIKH… …THE RECASTING OF HISTORY AS PRODUCT, VISITORS AS CONSUMERS AND EGYPTIANS AS INTERLOPERS IMPACTED ANYONE LIVING IN THE VICINITY OF PHARAONIC SITES. A LONG-RUNNING PLAN TO TRANSFORM LUXOR–A CITY OF ALMOST HALF-A-MILLION PEOPLE–INTO THE WORLD’S LARGEST ‘OPEN AIR MUSEUM’ AND EXCAVATE A 1.5 MILE-LONG AVENUE OF THE SPHINXES INVOLVED THE DISPLACEMENT OF THOUSANDS, THE BULLDOZING OF COUNTLESS 19TH- CENTURY BUILDINGS OF ARCHITECTURAL AND HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE AS WELL AS THE CITY’S ANCIENT BAZAAR, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF TOURIST- FRIENDLY PLAZAS AND SHOPPING MALL THROUGHOUT THE TOWN. – JACK SHENKAR, THE EGYPTIANS
R O P E A N C A P I T A L I S M A N D I M P E R I A L I S M … A S S U M P T I O N S A B O U T CULTURAL CONTINUITY, AUTONOMY AND AUTHENTICITY MUST BE QUESTIONED. MUCH OF WHAT APPEARS ANCIENT, INTEGRATED, AND IN NEED OF PRESERVATION AGAINST THE DISRUPTIVE IMPACT OF MODERN SOCIAL C H A N G E I S I T S E L F R E C E N T L Y I N V E N T E D ” [ C O L O N I A L S I T U A T I O N S , 1991:316]. – TALAL ASAD
CAN DON AND ENACT THEIR CUSTOMS IN THE HOPE OF GETTING PRIZE MONEY AND RECOGNITION. INDICATIVE HERE WAS THE DISPLAY CONSIDERED TO BE THE MOST ALLURING AND SUCCESSFUL, PERFORMED BY A GROUP OF MEN AND WOMEN FROM A REMOTE VILLAGE…THE NEXT DAY THE LEAD DANCER WAS WEARING HIS CLEAN WHITE SHIRT WHILE STANDING WITH HIS SON WATC H I N G A R U G B Y G A M E . T H E F O L LO W I N G SUNDAY, HE WAS AT THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH WITH HIS GLASSES ON SO THAT HE COULD READ HIS BIBLE BETTER.” – BRUCE M. KNAUFT CRITICALLY MODERN
Our Individual Eye Is A Historical Eye • We Are Heirs To Centuries of Habits of ‘Seeing’ & ‘Representing’ • We Are Tutored In Methods of Knowledge Recognition And Framing • We Do Not Stand Outside The Epistemology Of Our Disciplines • Mocking Clichés Is Unhelpful Because They Are Also What Moves Us To Go • Creating Something New From Cliched Elements Is An Act of Genius–Steve McCurry!
Cultural Clichés Offer Community • Visual & Cultural Clichés Offer Confirmation • Visual & Cultural Clichés Offer Completeness • Visual & Cultural Clichés Are Truths We Desire • Visual & Cultural Clichés Confirm Our Experiences WE HAVE TO ACCEPT ALSO THAT WE ARE PART OF WHY CLICHES PERSIST
To A Place / People • Ask What You Imagine You Will Find There • Ask What You Desire To Find There • Question Why You Desire What You Do • Question What You See When It Adheres Too Closely To Your Expectations • Seek Deeper • Recognise The Coevalness of You And Your Subjects.
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