The photograph as ruin

Abstract

The article examines ‘ruin' as a promising theoretical concept for the study of photography. A ruin, in particular, a Modern ruin, is seen as a multilayered object which brings the past and the present in close proximity. It compromises the stable position of the viewer, and thus introduces multiple perspectives on the past. Two examples of photography are examined in the article: the series Batterfelds by Sally Mann, a contemporary American photographer, and stereographic images made by Sergey Chelnokov, an amateur Russian photographer from the beginning of the 20th century. Sally Mann achieves the effect of superimposing different historical ‘times' by using 19th century photographic techniques to create contemporary depictions of Civil War battlefelds. As for Chelnokov's visual archive, the technical qualities of stereo photography allow contemporary viewers to undertake a conceptual redefnition of their relation to the past.