Oldal 598 [598]
596
Kamila Baraniecka-Olszewska
For reenactors, photographs imitating war photos are another means to engage
with the history. Reactions of non-reenactors can be completely different, because
they do not have the experience of immersing into the past (however, they did not
become a part of my study).
"1hus I argue that reenacting photography should be analysed not only in terms
of photography and its representational and evocational potential but also in terms
of Hayden Whites historiophoty (1988). Ihe opinion that we cannot perceive
photography as "true" representation of reality and that it is always filtered by the
photographers view and his or her political or social aims has already become
a truism. With regard to reenacting war photography, it is even more evident that
we do not deal with a representation of war but a kind of restaged representation,
a sophisticated fake. Moreover, debating ways in which reenacted photos cannot
represent the “true” past is fruitless and, as I show further, in this process of merely
skimming over the “representation crisis” (see, e.g. Greene 1994; Lutkehaus &
Cool 1999); I see a certain interpretative potential here, which can be explored
with the help of the category of historiophoty.
Reenacting Photography as Historiophoty
Historiophoty is a term introduced by White (1988) to define “the representation
of history and our thought about it in visual images and filmic discourse”. White
derives his considerations from Robert Rosenstone’s article about the reliable rep¬
resentation of history in film (1988). Notwithstanding that both authors reflect
mostly on films, they both see dangers of giving visual representations too much
credit for describing the past. Furthermore, White underlines that reading visual
data of the past requires different tools than the critique of written documents
(1988: 1193), thus historiophoty and historiography tend to be separate phenom¬
ena, although they are perceived as bound together, since visual representations—
for example, photos—are expected to be deprived of their own narration. And such
conviction according to White is inconsistent with the whole idea of historiophoty
as an autonomous kind of narration of the past. Thus, White proposes a way of
representing history in parallel with and supplemental to historiography (not only
complementing it, as visual data is granted some autonomy here).
Consequently, instead of focusing on reading visual representations of history,
I would like to develop a practice of historiophoty. White (Ibid.: 1194) notes that
some aspects of history can be more accurately presented by visual media than
by writing. Also Bojarska pays attention to form and its adequacy in presenting
historical content in her analysis of visual arts representations of history (2013: 8).
The conviction that in some circumstances visual media work better is commonly
shared. Despite some trust placed in this form of historical representation, White
reminds us that “no history, visual or verbal, ‘mirrors’ all or even the greater part
of the events or scenes of which it purports to be an account, and this is true even
of the most narrowly restricted ‘micro-history” (1988: 1194). This is true of reen¬