Shawn Sobers Shawn.Sobers@uwe.ac.uk
Professor of Cultural Interdisciplinary Practice
An auto-ethnographic dialogue with archive
Sobers, Shawn
Authors
Abstract
This provocation offered an analysis of a piece of photographic artwork I produced, a self-portrait inbetween two enslaved Africans. The Africans portrayed are named Jack and Delia, enslaved on a South Carolina plantation, photographed by Joseph T. Zealy in 1850, commissioned by controversial naturalist Louis Agassiz. The photograph of Delia is disturbing, naked with tears in her eyes.
I offer a dialogue with the self-portrait
montage using Dr Kobi Kambon's 'theory of African American personality' model as the framework for analysis. I talk through relationships with the image through different stages in a lifecycle narrative, such as - shame, self-hatred, awareness, empathy, pride, solidarity, kinship and realisation.
The presentation argues that archives have a rhetoric that can be entirely personal, though all engagement with archives is a form of dialogue. It explores how our engagements with archives can be both visceral and based on prior knowledge.
Citation
Sobers, S. (2018, July). An auto-ethnographic dialogue with archive. Paper presented at Reframing Film Heritage, Watershed, Bristol, England
Presentation Conference Type | Conference Paper (unpublished) |
---|---|
Conference Name | Reframing Film Heritage |
Conference Location | Watershed, Bristol, England |
Start Date | Jul 26, 2018 |
End Date | Jul 26, 2018 |
Acceptance Date | Jul 26, 2018 |
Publication Date | Jul 26, 2018 |
Peer Reviewed | Not Peer Reviewed |
Keywords | archives, auto-ethnography, photography, self-portrait, transatlantic slavery, south carolina, peabody institute, harvard, delia, jack, joseph t. Zealy, louis agassiz, kobi kambon |
Public URL | https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/864159 |
Additional Information | Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : Reframing Film Heritage |
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