Archaeology, Museums, Heritage Seminar
Sarah Judd | UNSW
Dual perspectives: the intersection of commerce and culture in late 19th century archaeological stereography
What happens when we take a step back and interrogate photographs of archaeology? Examining the production and use context of archaeological photography can provide us with important cues on how these images can be read.
Even if intended to be purely documentary, they are the product of selective, culturally driven actions. To illustrate the potential for this I will make a case study of a corpus of stereographs held at the University of Sydney’s Historic Photograph Archive. A type of photography that mimics binocular vision, stereography was a commercial success for over 70 years. In that time millions of images were sold across the world, often by international publishing houses. Dating from the turn of the 20th century, these stereographs depict ancient Greek archaeological sites. They were often used to simulate the experience of travel for an audience who may never have seen them in person. I hope to show how the motives of these publishing houses, in conjunction with 19th century ideas of ancient Greece and its connection to the West, heavily influenced their composition and reception.
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The Department of Archaeology hosts a number of lively departmental research seminars. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Where
Online on Zoom
When
1 May 2020,
4:00-5:00 pm
Registration
- If you are already registered for the Archaeology, Museums and Heritage seminar series, you will receive an email containing the link to the Zoom meeting.
- If you would like to be added to the Archaeology, Museums and Heritage seminar series email list, please contact the convenors (email below) or fill in this form
Seminar Series convenors:
Agata Calbrese,Lorraine Leung, Kieran McGee, Simon Wyatt-Spratt, and Sareeta Zaid
Click here to email
The Department of Archaeology is part of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI).