The ESMA image factory. Taking photographs as forced work in a clandestine detention centre

This article investigates the forced task of taking photographs that some of the kidnapped people in the ESMA clandestine detention center had to carry out between 1977 and 1983. The article first reconstructs the functioning of the photography laboratory, explaining its role in the system of repres...

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Autor principal: Feld, Claudia
Formato: Artículo revista
Lenguaje:Español
Publicado: Facultad de Humanidades y Artes, UNR 2024
Acceso en línea:https://anuariodehistoria.unr.edu.ar/index.php/Anuario/article/view/439
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Sumario:This article investigates the forced task of taking photographs that some of the kidnapped people in the ESMA clandestine detention center had to carry out between 1977 and 1983. The article first reconstructs the functioning of the photography laboratory, explaining its role in the system of repression and power established there, and defining four periods and four “teams” of prisoners-photographers. Then, it analyzes two corpuses of photos taken by them: 1) photos of perpetrators intended to falsify identity documents; 2) photographs taken behind the backs of the perpetrators, as a means of transgression. In this framework, different systems of spatial contiguities between the photographic act and violence are examined, postulating the existence of different spaces “in suspense”, inside the clandestine center but outside its logic. The article thus problematizes the relationship between photography and captivity in the context of the last dictatorship in Argentina, understanding photography as a particular practice developed in a context of subjection and resistance.