Journal Articles by Christoph Rippe
The Provenance and Provenience of Photographs: Reconnecting Serial Images in the Umzimkhulu District, South Africa, 1899–2023
History and Anthropology, 2024
This article introduces the ideas of provenance and provenience as a methodological approach to t... more This article introduces the ideas of provenance and provenience as a methodological approach to the study of photography from and in colonial contexts. It argues that rendering visible in this way the complex microhistories and photographic occasions of colonization, is an essential precondition to considering what a decolonization of photography could actually look like. Retracing a photograph’s trajectory back in time as image, object, and practice at times not only allows it to be reconnected to the exact place and moment in which it has been produced, but also shows its entanglement with other objects and actors as a lived experience. While this approach has value for studying photography at large, it is developed here through a series of 17 photographs showing a so-called first-fruits ceremony (ingcubhe), all taken on the same photographic occasion in the South African Umzimkhulu district in March 1899. Only by matching historical and present photographic frames and framings are descendants of the photographed and other stakeholders able to engage collectively with the photographs and their histories. It follows that it is more appropriate to the medium’s nature to think through the process of returning such photographs to their place of origin, not as a visual repatriation, but first of all as a visual reconnection. Reconnecting historical photographs to the exact space and time of their production through the research method repeat photography eventually creates new photographic occasions, which in turn are able to socially reanimate old ones.
Provenienz & Forschung, 2023
Many photographs from contexts of unequal power relations are highly sensitive objects. Such phot... more Many photographs from contexts of unequal power relations are highly sensitive objects. Such photographs are stored in image repositories of all kinds, with a large number in the archives of (former) ethnological museums. Photographs from colonial contexts are important sources for historical research, for example for provenance research on other museum objects and their significance in postcolonial relationships. At the same time, however, photographs are also objects that can act as mediators in these networks of relationships. With the double reference of »re-presentation«, this article on the one hand addresses the question of the production processes and the representational content of historical photographs and on the other the renewed social dialogue enabled by them.
Kontaktsymptome: Die Möglichkeiten der Annäherung an Objekte aus kolonialen Kontexten und die Momente ihres Transfers
Tribus: Jahrbuch des Linden-Museums, 2022
Ideally, postcolonial provenance research on “ethnographic” museum collections traces an object’s... more Ideally, postcolonial provenance research on “ethnographic” museum collections traces an object’s social biography back as far as possible, at least to the moment of the first transaction from a representative of a colonised community to a representative of a colonising community. However, archival situations rarely permit this exercise to its full extent. The least one can do under such circumstances, is to understand the inner workings of a museum’s archival system and the motivations and reasonings of those actors who appropriated and described the objects, and accordingly crafted or neglected their documentation. Often these motivations and their articulations were both rational and visceral at the same time, if only to provide arguments to keep the economy of “ethnographic” objects thriving. This article provides suggestions on how to address these issues, based on the current state of research on the Linden-Museum’s collections from Namibia and Cameroon.
Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht, 2021
Historical photographs from colonial contexts form an integral part of ethnological museum collec... more Historical photographs from colonial contexts form an integral part of ethnological museum collections worldwide. However, they are hardly considered in the current debate on the translocation of objects from colonial contexts. This article argues for a cross-media approach to such collections by demonstrating the historical and contemporary relevance of photographs. Just as with other object categories, one needs to approach photographs through provenance research, while taking into account their split nature as being simultaneously image and object.
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Historische Fotografien aus kolonialen Kontexten bilden einen wichtigen Bestandteil der Sammlungen ethnologischer Museen weltweit. Allerdings werden sie in der momentanen Debatte zur Verlagerung von Objekten aus kolonialen Kontexten kaum berücksichtigt. Der Beitrag plädiert für eine medienübergreifende Betrachtung von Sammlungen, indem er die historische und gegenwärtige Relevanz von Fotografien aufzeigt. Genauso wie bei anderen Objektkategorien müssen wir uns Fotografien durch Provenienzforschung annähern, dabei jedoch deren gespaltene Natur als gleichzeitig Bild und Objekt berücksichtigen.
Safundi. The Journal of South African and American Studies, 2014
In this article, I argue that certain photographs of Christian converts at the Catholic Mission s... more In this article, I argue that certain photographs of Christian converts at the Catholic Mission station Mariannhill in Natal underwent a process of theatricalization, in the decade just prior to World War I. Foucault identified theater stages as one of the possible places that may be called heterotopias, and also alluded to mission stations in this regard. I explicate what those spaces may have in common with the performative aspects to the production of photographs and the evocation of faith towards benefactor audiences in Europe.
Book Chapters by Christoph Rippe
Tracing the Ingcubhe: "Four-Eyed Sight" in the Artistic Relationship of Gerard Bhengu and Dr Max Kohler at Centocow Mission, 1926–1931
Gerard T. Bhengu, 2022
Fotografie und Auto-Anthropologie: Emma und Felix von Luschans Fremd- und Selbstinszenierungen
"Überleben im Bild": Der fotografische Nachlass Felix von Luschans, 2021
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Journal Articles by Christoph Rippe
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Historische Fotografien aus kolonialen Kontexten bilden einen wichtigen Bestandteil der Sammlungen ethnologischer Museen weltweit. Allerdings werden sie in der momentanen Debatte zur Verlagerung von Objekten aus kolonialen Kontexten kaum berücksichtigt. Der Beitrag plädiert für eine medienübergreifende Betrachtung von Sammlungen, indem er die historische und gegenwärtige Relevanz von Fotografien aufzeigt. Genauso wie bei anderen Objektkategorien müssen wir uns Fotografien durch Provenienzforschung annähern, dabei jedoch deren gespaltene Natur als gleichzeitig Bild und Objekt berücksichtigen.
Book Chapters by Christoph Rippe