Terra Obscura
"A general imperial right to seize and take was practiced as given and unlimited. The use of the camera was built on this right to take-to take photographs in worlds that were "opened up" for them by imperial agents who socialized them to see this right as inalienable, given to them for the sake of humanity..."
Ariella Aisha Azoulay, Potential History, Unlearning Imperialism
In the 19th century, Western men armed with a camera, join the explorers, chroniclers and literate travelers to capture and document the world around them, contributing to the creation and dissemination of “exotic” imaginaries, a practice that continues in contemporary photography.
This work understands photography as a technology that was never innocent or neutral and as a culture and a modus-operandi that initiated back in 1492. I am interested in the relationship between the history of photography and the colonial gaze and the extractive principles on which photography was first institutionalized.
In Terra Obscura, I work with archival and found imagery, pages from books and magazines, money bills, negatives, tape and thread. I appropriate them, re-photograph, intervene, deconstruct and peel back the layers of time to disrupt the innocence of the photographs, to notice the power dynamics, to explore beyond the frame, to create counter-narratives and open up new dialogues.
This project, the third chapter of "Mi País Imaginado", was inspired and influenced by several readings including Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism by Ariella Aisha Azoulay, Decolonising the Camera: Photography in Racial Times by Mark Sealy, Listening to Images by Tina Campt, and The Image of Whiteness edited by Daniel C. Blight.
Website
https://www.claudiafineart.com/
Collaborating Artist
Claudia Ruiz Gustafson
