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592 Kamila Baraniecka-Olszewska 2015; Schneider 2011). Moreover, performance itself becomes an archive of historical gestures and practices (Schneider 2011). Ihe same performance can be, however, subseguently captured, by either a bystander or a reenactor engaged in the performance of history, using photography to visualize the remote past. The particular activity analysed in this article is usually referred to as “reenacting photography”. It has many variants and no established codex or rules, as these are still in the making, since the activity is a quite new phenomenon that appeared only a few years ago as a further development of historical reenactment. Usually however, it is realised in two main ways or in their certain combination. The first way focuses on taking photos of reenacted events or reenactors, using digital cameras, and editing them to make them look as if they were from a particular historical period. The second way is a reenactment practice, re-creating the work of war photographers. In such a case, contemporary photographers use cameras and wear uniforms from the historical period to be able to make pictures on the reenacted battlefield and, subsequently, if possible, develop pictures in period-like conditions—sometimes (although rarely) even in a tent next to the battlefield. The fundamental aim of making photos using both of these techniques is to imitate pictures from the past through capturing reenactment events in them. Photographers undertaking this task are often reenactors themselves (in the case of war cameramen these are exclusively men, since women generally were not allowed to be ona battlefield; however, women also make photographs of reenactment events, from a distance), but they focus mostly on taking photographs and capturing in them the reenacted ambience of the historical period. This practice brings the other and distant past to the present in a particular way. In order to achieve it, contemporary photographers deconstruct the image of the past, dividing it into pieces in order to build a photographic representation of history. They thus create a new image of history—in the form of a picture taken and edited by themselves (Figs 1-4). The Other—the past—reenacted and preserved on photography—cropped and modified according to the contemporary imagination about historical periods—is designed by photographers. It is construed either by means of modern technology or by a meticulous re-creation of past photographic techniques. Whichever the mode of production may be, the resulting photos resemble contemporary imagery of a particular period. Research on Reenacting Photography The data for this article came from various sources. I have browsed Second World War pictures on over twenty reenactment groups’ websites and websites dedicated to war photography. It was not a rigorous query—I merely wanted to grasp the character and the mood of war photographs. In my research I focused above all on the “reenacted” pictures posted on websites, which are the most common space for displaying those photographs. I observed the work of photographers on reenacted battlefields and I talked with them about their work. I spoke with reenactors about
