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390 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 interpretation. 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 documenting 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 photography 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 illustration 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 conventionalised 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
