Historical Photography in Kachin State: An Update on the Impact of the James Henry Green Collection of Photographs

• Published in: South Asia Vol. 30; no. 3; pp. 457 - 477
• Main Author: Sadan, Mandy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01-12-2007
• Subjects: Asia: Culture; Asia: Social history; Burma Frontier Photographs 1918-1935; Colonialism; Communities; Ethnic groups; Green, James Henry; Historical analysis; Meaning; Memory; Military regimes; Photograph collections; Photography; Politics; Social change; Social memory; Visual culture
• ISSN: 0085-6401; 1479-0270
• DOI: 10.1080/00856400701714070

This paper presents part of a still ongoing study of the impact of a published work based on the photographic collections of Colonel James Henry Green, Burma Frontier Photographs 1918-1935, on contemporary notions of history and societal change in Kachin communities in Burma. It explores the introduction and early reception in contemporary urban communities in Burma of this collection of photographic images taken by a British colonial officer. Tracking the development of discourses arising from discussion of the photographs over a ten year period, the subsequent impact of these images on reconfiguring meaning frameworks for non-Christian historical culture among the Kachin peoples are identified, as well as their ongoing role in the disentangling of colonial discourses on identity. The paper presents an overview of the contemporary prevalence and status of historical 'ethnographic' photographs of the Kachin peoples and the ways in which visual culture carries symbolic meaning in the cultural politics of contemporary Burma. It also considers the role that historical photographs have in constructing boundaries of social memory and the phenomenological response towards their 'unknown-ness'. By considering changes to the graphics of student magazines since the ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Army and the Burmese military regime in 1994, the paper concludes that the introduction of the images is in the process of effecting significant cognitive changes in the visual representation of historicity in Kachin society. Finally, the study of the photographs and the book in which they were published raises questions about the impact of research publications on communities, especially those lacking longstanding literate traditions, which are made their object.