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Magdalena Sztandara
‘A Woman from a Newspaper’: A New Face
for Ideology and Old Habits
Problematising the Photograph
The chapter follows the assumptions that the history of culture (i.e. a particular
socio-cultural reality) can be told by employing photography as a vehicle for inter¬
pretation. When describing photographic images (both contemporary and from
the past), one can attempt to recognise the patterns and standards of depiction of
socio-cultural changes. Thus, photography includes not only the process of docu¬
menting the world, but also of seeing and conceptualising it. In other words, when
interpreting photography one should consider its crucial cognitive value, which is
its ‘ethnographicness (cf. Pink 2007). It is the ethnographicness that gives pho¬
tography the status of performed imaginaries, which are entangled in particular
contexts and meanings. The emphasis put on the ethnographicness of photography
means that we move beyond its conventional understanding as merely an illus¬
tration and underlines the interpretative aspect of its usage (cf. Sztandara 2006).
Consequently, photography implies something more than solely representing the
subject or object; it is a vehicle that allows us to explore the concealed layers of
cultural significations. Photography may be seen as one of many possible (visual)
stories about the cultural world, its inhabitants and their everyday lives. The images
depicted in photographs are the messages from the past determined by convention¬
alised cultural codes (cf. Olechnicki 2000). Therefore, photography is not a source
of knowledge of the past, but rather it is a source of performed imaginaries and
representations of the past. It gives us the possibility to look at the particular past
narratives and can therefore be a vehicle for better understanding of the history of
ideas and imaginaries.
In this context, it is important to acknowledge the dependencies between the
popularisation of photographic ways of perceiving the world and the process that
we may define as theatralisation of social life (cf. Magala 1978). Photographic
images seem to be one of its crucial elements due to activities such as arranging
the reality that it entails. In addition, the ways and rules, which are applied in
the interpretation of photographic images, launch the intricate endeavours that
include various theatralised scenarios embedded in social contexts. Therefore,
the relationship of model-photographer—camera-—teceiver is translated here into
the relationship of social actor—director—viewer (cf. Sztandara 2006). Along these
lines, the costume and decoration that complete the scenery serve as signs that
help to situate, recognise and name the places and people. Therefore, this allows
us to identify the subject in front of the camera with the elements of a wider