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VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE 17-2, 1995
Richard MACKINNON Annmarie ADAMS, Richard MACKINNON Natalia SHOSTOK Jean-Claude DUPONT Andrée CRÉPEAU, Dale Gilbert JARVIS Robert MELLIN Brian RUSTED |
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Framing a House, Photography and the Performance of Heritage Brian RUSTED Using data from qualitative research on vernacular housing, this paper discusses the role of photography in the heritage restoration of an outport community in Newfoundland. An assessment of the instrumental role usually played by photography in ethnographic and material culture research is made in light of the vernacular uses of photography. The socially coded and symbolic character of this built environment signals distinct taste and class cultures which are performed in narrative and material media. Photography contributes to the local performance of the past and the sign value of the built environment: it legitimates the invention of heritage and at the same time offers a means for local residents to contest dominant codings of their houses. In developing this case study, the role of photography will be considered from a variety of perspectives: as a research tool for the ethnography of communication; as a resource that offers access to categories of local knowledge; as a communicational practice that provides a corpus of texts for oppositional readings; and as a problematic representational form which raises questions about the medium in relation to research.
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