The photographic representation of disability in the territory of Latvia in the second half of the nineteenth century

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on approaches to the representation of disability in nineteenth-century photography and the institutionalized construction of the understanding of disability in the photograph album titled Idioten-Anstalt von Fr. Platz: Riga d. 9. Juli 1862 published in 1862 in Riga, Latvia (then part of the Russian Empire). The aim of this article is to analyze to what extent the album was an instrument of authority, reflected a certain understanding of power, and became a tool for helping to construct an understanding of disability. The representation reveals the categorization and concepts of disability of the period and presents the results and consequences of institutional actions and the importance of the provision of special education and social care, as well as the formation of an inclusive society.