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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Ph.D. Thesis Abstract - Photographic Archives: From the Documentation of the Cultural Heritage to the Formation of a Visual Culture
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2015-03-01
2021-09-21
2015-03-01
2024-02-14
Cinéma & Cie
Martino Caterina
2015/03/01
Università della Calabria
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Ph.D. Thesis Abstract - Photographic Archives: From the Documentation of the Cultural Heritage to the Formation of a Visual Culture
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/16415/17047
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Photographic Archives: From the Documentation
of the Cultural Heritage to the Formation of a Visual Culture
Caterina Martino / Ph.D. Thesis Abstract1
Università della Calabria




   This dissertation has been co-financed by the European Commission, the Eu-
ropean Social Fund and Regione Calabria through the Regional Operative Pro-
gram (POR) Calabria FSE 2007-2013, Axis IV “Human Capital,” Operational
Objective M.2, which is aimed at “supporting individual pathways of higher edu-
cation for graduate students and young researchers in institutions of recognized
national and international prestige.” The funding for the research is part of a
regional program aimed at stimulating training periods abroad and the exchange
of best practices to improve and innovate specific areas of interest. In particular,
the reference area for this research project is “Cultural Heritage.”
   This research aims to provide a theoretical definition and a practical method
for archiving photographs. This should not be considered entirely as a practical
and technical activity, but should be thought of in theoretical aspects, related
both to the main function of the archive that preserves pictures and to the role
and value that photography assumes in an archive. The research is divided in two
parts: the first one consists of constructing a theoretical perspective that is very
specific for photography in the archive, the second one consists of an empirical
research that looks more in depth at the reality of photographic archives. The re-
search is also characterized by a comparison between Italian theory and method-
ology that would create a unique practice when applied, and British theory and
methods that prefer to respect differences and specificity. During the research
stage of my thesis work, I visited several photo collections as well as spent a pe-
riod as a visiting research student at the Photography and the Archive Research
Centre (London College of Communication). I also worked as a volounteer at the
Stanley Kubrick Archive, which has been a substantial reference for my work.
   The research has inquired into the use of the word ‘archive’ so that the pho-
tographic document can finally be separated from a bureaucratic field. I consid-
ered the archival theory with particular reference to the Italian discipline. It ap-
pears that in Italy the archive is related to an administrative context which makes


1
 Ph.D. thesis supervised by Prof. Marcello Walter Bruno and successfully defended on 19 March
2014. For information: caterina.martino@gmail.com

                                                   Cinéma & Cie, vol. XV, no. 24, Spring 2015
                                           Caterina Martino


it a bureaucratic system with legal value. In fact, in Italy the archetype is the State
Archives and the most common notion of the archive is the result of combined
action between archival theory and state laws. In addition, state intervention has
also established that the archive is part of the cultural heritage contradicting its
legal and administrative value. The archival theory is a well-established practice
and is validated by state regulations; for this reason it is extended to all forms of
the archive, including collections of photographs. However, an administrative
archive contains written documents that are entirely different from the content
of a photographic archive. The shared classification under ‘archive’ does not
make them identical. What they have in common is the presence of a catalogue
that determines both as ordered systems, but the catalogue should be designed
according to the specific characteristics of the archive’s contents. The first part of
the research is a deconstruction of the traditional idea of archive and an attempt
to define a more specific notion of the photographic archive. It is necessary to
make a distinction between terms that in Italian are wrongly used synonymously
to refer to the archive and to also consider some twentieth century authors, phi-
losophers and artists who have theorized about the archive and the relationship
between the archive and photography (among others M. Foucault, J. Derrida, P.
Ricoeur, H. Foster, A. Sekula, O. Enwezor).2
    I also inquire into the documentality of photography. The value of the docu-
ment depends both on the indexical character that makes photography evidence
that can be preserved and duplicated, as well as the way through which it has
been used to collect the world. The documental character of pictures is empha-
sized when they are included in an archival system, thus becoming a historical
source which can be consulted. I also mention historical episodes and photogra-
phers who have produced photographic documentation and archives. According
to their public or private nature, these photographic projects have presented
photography as both historical document and artistic work. Photography is a
visual document that has both these values, which is demonstrated by the con-
temporary tendency of artists who recycle photographic documents in a context



2
  Michel Foucault, L’a priori historique et l’archive, in Id., L’Archéologie du savoir, Gallimard, Paris
1969 (It. ed. L’a priori storico e l’archivio, in Id., L’archeologia del sapere, Biblioteca Universale Riz-
zoli, Milano 1999, pp. 169-176); Jacques Derrida, Mal d’Archive: Une impression freudienne, Edi-
tions Galilée, Paris 1995 (It. ed. Mal d’archivio. Un’impressione freudiana, Filema, Napoli 1996);
Id., Copy, Archive, Signature: A Conversation on Photography, Stanford University Press, Stanford
(CA) 2010; Paul Ricoeur, Archives, documents, traces, in Id., Temps et récit. Tome III: Le temps
raconté, Seuil, Paris 1985 (It. ed. Archivi, documenti, traccia, in Id., Tempo e racconto volume 3. Il
tempo raccontato, Jaca Book, Milano 1994, pp. 178-191); Hal Foster, “The Archive without Muse-
ums,” in October, vol. 77, Summer 1996, pp. 97-119; Id., “Archives of Modern Art,” in October,
vol. 99, Winter 2002, pp. 81-95; Id., “An Archival Impulse,” in October, vol. 110, Autumn 2004,
pp. 3-22; Allan Sekula, “The Body and the Archive,” in October, vol. 39, Winter 1986, pp. 3-64;
Id., “Reading an Archive: Photography between Labour and Capital,” in Liz Wells (ed.), The Pho-
tography Reader, Routledge, London 2002, pp. 443-452; Okwui Enwezor, Archive Fever: Uses of
the Document in Contemporary Art, Steidl – International Center of Photography, New York 2008.

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                               Photographic Archives


of performing art after extracting them from a real archive. A photograph is an
administrative document only if it used in an administrative context.
   Finally, to understand the criteria of archivability for photography I choose to
analyze in depth three archives where photography is stored: the Saverio Marra
Archive in San Giovanni in Fiore (in Calabria, Italy), the Fratelli Alinari Archives
in Florence and the Lambeth Archives in London. These three photographic
collections are very different in terms of geographical boundaries, chronological
period, typology, photographic techniques, quantity, purposes and organization.
I compared them according to all the stages of their management. In the last
chapter of the dissertation I propose a methodology that integrates the theoreti-
cal and empirical data I have collected throughout the research.
   The practice of archiving photographs takes place at both diachronic and
synchronic levels and is characterized by many stages (from the design of the
archive to the promotion and the valorization of its content). The photographic
archive can be defined as a system that includes mixed content that is not always
produced by a single creator nor consequently managed and owned by the one
who created it. It is however characterized by a universal dimension (the his-
tory of photography) that includes an individual dimension (the history of each
piece). It is a combined system that can be divisible and that escapes the life
cycle of archives because it always has a historical value. The Italian archival
theory has classified photographic archives as “new sources,” and in administra-
tive archives photographs are still subordinated to the written files. The Eng-
lish distinction between archive and record could be useful to separate the two.
Even in this case, the archive is the last part of the life of a document while the
photographic archive is not the final destination for photographs that have lost
their use value. For all these reasons a photographic archive seems to be more
similar to those modalities of preservation that usually are considered opposed
to the archive: collection, museum, library. Perhaps, I argue, it is necessary to
change the denomination from photographic archive to photo library (fototeca)
and manage it in relation to the visual culture perspective.




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