Camera archaeologia: a media archaeological investigation into the contemporary use of 19th-century photographic techniques

Abstract

In the age where digital has become the norm, the earliest methods of photographic production started to provide peculiar and novel modes for the visual experience. Although 19th-century photographic techniques are not central today, they manage to hold a marginal share in the photographic discourse and practice. A small number of contemporary photographers tend to go against the grain of digital culture by diverting to chemical-based techniques without completely turning their backs on what digital technologies have to offer. By undertaking a media archaeological approach, this research investigates the motivations of those photographers. As a result of discourse analysis of interviews with seven photographers, it is found that 19th-century photographic techniques function as imaginary media which are conceived as compensatory methods that make up for problems, deficiencies, and challenges in the current hegemonic photographic technologies and practices. By combining desired features of chemical and numeric approaches to photography, the lack of tangibility, do-it-yourself sensation, experimentality, and subjectivity in digital technologies are attempted to be compensated.