Dominici, S. 2020. The Postal Service, Circulating Portfolios and the Cultural Production of Modern Networked Identities. History of Photography. 44 (2-3), pp. 111-127. https://doi.org/10.1080/03087298.2021.1907959
| Title | The Postal Service, Circulating Portfolios and the Cultural Production of Modern Networked Identities |
|---|---|
| Type | Journal article |
| Authors | Dominici, S. |
| Abstract | The launch of the Royal Mail’s parcel post service in 1883 was concurrent with the increase of amateur photographers in Britain, supporting new ways for this group of practitioners to come together: the postal photographic clubs. This article explores the influence that members’ active participation in assembling and distributing the portfolios that each club shared had on photographers’ understanding of their own role in the production of photographic meanings and values. It does so by discussing the postal service as a technology of communication and transport; the virtual space created through circulating portfolios as a modern network; and the conjoint acts of writing, reading and looking at photographs that constituted each portfolio as reframing photographers’ idea of self. It covers the period that goes from the early 1880s to the early 1910s, by which time postal photographic clubs had become almost ubiquitous in Britain. The article demonstrates that this process implicitly challenged the institutionalisation of this period’s dominant photographic discourse. |
| Keywords | amateur photography |
| circulating portfolios | |
| modern infrastructures | |
| parcel post | |
| photographic network | |
| postal photographic clubs | |
| postal service | |
| Royal Mail | |
| Journal | History of Photography |
| Journal citation | 44 (2-3), pp. 111-127 |
| ISSN | 0308-7298 |
| 2150-7295 | |
| Year | 2020 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| Accepted author manuscript | License CC BY 4.0 File Access Level Open (open metadata and files) |
| Publisher's version | License CC BY 4.0 File Access Level Open (open metadata and files) |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/03087298.2021.1907959 |
| Web address (URL) | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03087298.2021.1907959 |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 17 Jun 2021 |
| Published in print | 2020 |
| Supplemental file | License CC BY 4.0 File Access Level Open (open metadata and files) |