Photography's "Backward" Histories: Thinking through the Negative in Nineteenth-Century Andean Photography

The histories of Latin American photography from its invention until the first half of the twentieth century have been systematically relegated to the margins. Unlike histories of art, photography’s development in Latin America coincided with the canonical understanding of the medium so why are these images not part of the larger History of Photography? Why do we know so little about them and why are they barely known? More importantly, which stories and issues do these images expose? This paper argues that the collection, conservation, and preservation of the negative originals, and not their positive vintage counterparts, has affected the way in which Latin American photography has been understood and studied, thus far. I propose that a new theoretical understanding of the medium is needed, one that takes into account the various aspects of the photographic image, including its negative version. Through the analysis of examples that date the from the long Nineteenth Century in Colombia and Peru by photographers, such as, Melitón Rodríguez, Benjamín de la Calle, and Martín Chambi, this paper will show how new racial, social, and political issues emerge when studying photographs through what I call a “backward” methodology.