Re-Photography as Documentation and Understanding of the “Dirty War” in Argentina: G. Germano’s Photo Project “Absence”
Research Article
How to Cite
Meshcherkina (Rozhdestvenskaya) E.Y. Re-Photography as Documentation and Understanding of the “Dirty War” in Argentina: G. Germano’s Photo Project “Absence”. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation. 2025. Vol. 17. No. 1. P. 108-125. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2025.17.1.6 (in Russ.).
Abstract
The article considers a special form of photographic practice that may be in demand in sociology — repeated photography or re-photography. This is an act of repeating a photograph of the same place/character/practice, with a time lag between the two images, a look at a certain object “then and now”. The possibilities of re-photography were primarily used by researchers of the urban environment, demonstrating vivid variability. In the social sciences, the secondary use of visual documents can serve the purposes of education, policy, practice and advocacy. The format of re-photography can be heuristic in the direction of instrumentalization of temporality and social change. It is not devoid of methodological reflection, providing for a procedural sequence of the techniques undertaken [reflected and socially designated focus of comparison; archival evidence; technically justified stand point; idea of the applied task]. But there are also ethical issues that arise when re-photographing individuals. Field research using re-photography in social sciences can have multiple purposes - to document the rhythm of changes in a specific location based on the primary image, to generate social meanings in the torn fabric of social events. In relation to the latter, the article analyzes the Argentine photo project by G. Germano “Absence”, which thematizes the consequences of the dictatorship of the military junta [1976-1983] in Argentina. The technique of re-photography used by Germano in the series of diptychs produces the affect of a time torn apart by a traumatic event, in which some are destined to disappear and not grow old with their loved ones. The diptychs not only potentially evoke an individual “punctum”, they also provide the format of an open cultural stage through which viewers can access collective forms of mourning and empathy. Germano’s re-photography project fits into various strategies of artistic resistance that act out the elimination of collective trauma through the creation of new aesthetic proposals. The art of photography is re-politicized, seeking to undermine the social and cultural representations of the post-authoritarian discourse, which has never provided Argentine society with an exhaustive historical grand narrative.
Keywords:
re-photography, re-shooting, visualization of historical trauma, G. Germano, temporality, social change
References
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Schirillo J.A., Goldstein B. (2010) Gestalt Approach. In: E.B. Goldstein (ed.) Encyclopedia of Perception. Thousand Oaks: Sage. P. 469–472.
Smith T. (2007) Repeat Photography as a Method in Visual Anthropology. Visual Anthropology. Vol. 20. No. 2–3. P. 179–200. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08949460601152815
Tinkler P. (2013) Using Photographs in Social and Historical Research. Los Angeles: Sage.
Van Dembroucke C. (2010) The Absence Made Visible: The Case of Ausenc ̇as, Gustavo Germano’s Photographic Exhibition. Tensions. No. 4. P. 1–29. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25071/1913-5874/37351
Didi-Huberman G. (2008) Images in Spite of All: Four Photographs from Auschwitz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Grant C.A. (2003) Still Moving Images: Photographs of the Disappeared in Films about the Dirty War in Argentina. In: A. Hughes, A. Noble (eds.) Phototextualities: Intersections of Photography and Narrative. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. P. 63–86.
Guy N.K. (2012) The Lens: A Practical Guide for the Creative Photographer. Sebastopol: Rocky Nook.
Harper D. (2003) Reimaging Visual Methods: Galileo to Neuromancer. In: N.K. Denzin, Y.S. Lincoln (eds.) Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage. P. 176–198.
Kallemeyn L.M. (2018) Expanding the Role of Digital Photographs in Evaluation Practice: Documenting, Sense-making, and Imagining. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation. Vol. 33. No. 1. P. 114–134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/cjpe.31106
Klett M. (2011) Repeat Photography in Landscape Research. In: E. Margolis, L. Pauwels (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage. P. 114–130.
Klett M. (2010) Three Methods of Presenting Repeat Photographs. In: R.H. Webb, D.E. Boyer, R.M. Turner (eds.) Repeat Photography: Methods and Applications in the Natural Sciences. Washington: Island Press. P. 32–45.
Klett M., Lundgren M. (2006) After the Ruins, 1906 and 2006: Rephotographing the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Metcalfe A.S. (2016) Repeat Photography and Educational Research. In: Visual Research Methods in Educational Research. London: Palgrave Macmillan. P. 153–171. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137447357_9
Miles M. (2016). Rephotography and the Era of Witness. Photographies. Vol. 9. No. 1. P. 51–69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17540763.2016.1138995
Moreno N.F.M. (2022). Photography and Memory. Design, Arts, Culture. Vol. 3. No. 1. P. 26–32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/dac.31214
Pauwels L. (2010) Visual Sociology Reframed: An Analytical Synthesis and Discussion of Visual Methods in Social and Cultural Research. Sociological Methods and Research. Vol. 38. No. 4. P. 545–581. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124110366233
Ryan H.E. (2019) Political Street Art in Social Mobilization: A Tale of Two Protests in Argentina. In: The Aesthetics of Global Protest. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. P. 99–120. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048544509-008
Rieger J.H. (2011) Rephotography for Documenting Social Change. In: E. Margolis, L. Pauwels (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage. P. 132–149.
Schirillo J.A., Goldstein B. (2010) Gestalt Approach. In: E.B. Goldstein (ed.) Encyclopedia of Perception. Thousand Oaks: Sage. P. 469–472.
Smith T. (2007) Repeat Photography as a Method in Visual Anthropology. Visual Anthropology. Vol. 20. No. 2–3. P. 179–200. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08949460601152815
Tinkler P. (2013) Using Photographs in Social and Historical Research. Los Angeles: Sage.
Van Dembroucke C. (2010) The Absence Made Visible: The Case of Ausenc ̇as, Gustavo Germano’s Photographic Exhibition. Tensions. No. 4. P. 1–29. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25071/1913-5874/37351
Article
Received: 19.01.2025
Accepted: 31.03.2025
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APA
Meshcherkina (Rozhdestvenskaya), E. Y. (2025). Re-Photography as Documentation and Understanding of the “Dirty War” in Argentina: G. Germano’s Photo Project “Absence”. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation, 17(1), 108-125. https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2025.17.1.6
Section
Visual Sociology
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