Visions of the world

Abstract

PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORIANS' INVESTIGATIONS INTO HOW POWER AND CONTROL, as much as desire and agency, are encoded in visual projects have been central to the growing field of visual cultural studies. Interrogating the relationships between images and their social realities, scholars today reject assumptions about photography's evidentiary power as they address the conflicts and tensions between claims of authenticity and processes of image-making. Moreover, visual studies scholars are increasingly concerned about how exhibitions, archives, and other visual projects speak dialogically in broader political and cultural contexts.' Within this field, a number of studies of American photographic practices have explored how the camera's ability to capture and/or negotiate power inequalities participates in struggles for social and political hegemony.2 Two recent books about major photographic events of the twentieth century develop further some of these theoretical and historical insights. In A World on Display, Eric Breitbart examines photographs of native peoples at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, while in Picturing an Exhibition, Eric Sandeen offers an in-depth analysis of arguably the most famous photography exhibition ever held, The Family of Man. As both authors demonstrate,