COMMUNICATIONS AND CULTURE

Series Editors ROSALIND BRUNT, SIMON FRITH, STUART HALL,

ANGELA McROBBIE
Founding Editor PAUL WALTON

Steven Best and Douglas Kellner POSTMODERN THEORY:

CRITICAL INTERROGATIONS

Roy Boyne and Ali Rattansi (eds) POSTMODERNISM AND SOCIETY
Victor Burgin (ed.) THINKING PHOTOGRAPHY
Victor Burgin THE END OF ART THEORY: CRITICISM AND

POSTMODERNITY

Sean Cubitt VIDEOGRAPHY: VIDEO MEDIA AS ART AND

CULTURE

Lidia Curti FEMALE STORIES, FEMALE BODIES: NARRATIVE,

IDENTITY AND REPRESENTATION

James Donald (ed.) PSYCHOANALYSIS AND CULTURAL THEORY:

THRESHOLDS

Peter M. Lewis and Jerry Booth THE INVISIBLE MEDIUM: PUBLIC,

COMMERCIAL AND COMMUNITY RADIO

John Tagg THE BURDEN OF REPRESENTATION
John Tagg GROUNDS OF DISPUTE: ART HISTORY, CULTURAL

POLITICS AND THE DISCURSIVE FIELD

Janet Wolff THE SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF ART (2nd edition)

D.LI.A.D.T. Library

31046

T h e Burden of Representation

Essays on Photographies and Histories

John Tagg

:

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©John Tagg 1988

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In memory of my mother,

Ethel Tagg, born 1922, died 1980

* l

Contents

List of Plates viii

Acknowledgements xi

I n t r o d u c t i o n 1

1 A D e m o c r a c y of t h e I m a g e : P h o t o g r a p h i c

P o r t r a i t u r e a n d C o m m o d i t y P r o d u c t i o n 3 4

2 E v i d e n c e , T r u t h a n d O r d e r : P h o t o g r a p h i c R e c o r d s

a n d t h e G r o w t h o f t h e State 6 0

3 A M e a n s of S u r v e i l l a n c e : T h e P h o t o g r a p h as

E v i d e n c e in L a w 66

4 A L e g a l R e a l i t y : T h e P h o t o g r a p h as P r o p e r t y in

L a w 103

5 G o d ' s S a n i t a r y L a w : S l u m C l e a r a n c e a n d

P h o t o g r a p h y in L a t e N i n e t e e n t h - C e n t u r y L e e d s I 17

6 T h e C u r r e n c y o f t h e P h o t o g r a p h : N e w Deal

R e f o r m i s m a n d D o c u m e n t a r y R h e t o r i c 153

7 C o n t a c t s / W o r k s h e e t s : N o t e s o n P h o t o g r a p h y ,

H i s t o r y a n d R e p r e s e n t a t i o n 184

Notes and References 212

Bibliography 231

Index 237

List of Plates

1. H o n o r é Daumier, Pose de l'homme de la nature and Pose de l'homme

civilisé from Croquis Parisiens, 1853. (Bibliothèque Nationale,

Paris)

2. M m e Pierre-Paul Darbois, Mr Henry Rosales, painted miniature,

1843. (Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum)

3. Physionotracc engraving by Gilles-Louis Chretien, 1793. (The

Kodak Collection, National Museum of Photography, Film

and Television)

4. Unknown photographer, daguerreotype portrait in its case.

(Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum)

5. W. H. Fox Talbot, Gentleman Seated, calotype, 1842. (Trustees

of the Science Museum, London)

6. I). ( ) . Hill & R. Adamson, Portrait of D. 0. Hill, calotype,

c.1845. (Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum)

7. Unknown photographer, Portrait of a Man with a Tall Hat,

collodion glass negative, c.1860. (Trustees of the Science

M u s e u m , London)

8. Charles Lulwidgc Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Alice Liddell,

albumen print from a collodion negative, c.1858. ( G r a h a m
Ovcndcn)

9. Pages from an album of cartcs-dc-visite of Prominent French

Figures. (Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum)

10. André Adolphe Disdcri, Carte-de-visile Portrait of Marshal Vinoy,

albumen print. (Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum)

11. Gaspard-Félix T o u r n a c h o n ( N a d a r ) , Gioacchino Rossini, albumen

print. (National Portrait Gallery, London)

12. Pages from an album of Kodak snapshots, 1893-1894. (Trustees

of the Science Museum, London)

17

18

1!)

List of Plates ix

13. Front page of The Daily Mirror, 22 April 1912, half-tone plate.

(Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd)

14. Robert Demachy, Primavera, gum print, from Photographie est-elle

un art?, 1899. (Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities

Research Center, University of Texas at Austin)

15. Unknown photographer, Birmingham Prisoners, a m b r o l / p e s ,

1860-1862. (West Midlands Police)

16. Unknown photographer, Wandsworth Prison Records, 1873. (Public

Records Office, London, P C O M 2/291)

Dr H. W. Diamond, Inmate of the Surrey County Asylum from an

album entitled Portraits of Insanity, albumen print, 1852-1856.

(Royal Society of Medicine)
Unknown photographer, Stockport Ragged and Industrial School,

albumen print, c.1865. (Metropolitan Borough of Stockport,

Local Studies Library)
T h o m a s Barnes & Roderick J o h n s t o n e , Personal History of a
Child at Dr Barnardo's Home, albumen prints, 1874—1883. (The
Barnardo Photographic Archive)

20. Unknown photographer, Huntingdon County Gaol Records, 1872.

(Cambridgeshire County Constabulary)

J o h n Thomson, The Crawlers from Street Life in London,

Woodburytypc, 1877-1878. (The Manscll Collection)

T h o m a s Annan, Close No 11 Bridgegate from Photographs of Old
Closes, Streets, Etc., albumen print, 1867. (The Manscll

Collection)

23. J a c o b A. Riis, Bandits' Roost, New York, bromide print, 1888.

( M u s e u m of the City of New York)

24. Unknown photographer, Yard off St Peter's Square, No 79 on Plan

from City of Leeds, Insanitary Areas, 1896. (University of Leeds,
Brotherton Library)

25. Unknown photographer, Yard, East of Bridge Street from

Photographs of Properties of Petitioners in the Quarry Hill Unhealthy
Area, 1901. (University of Leeds, Brotherton Library)

26. Unknown photographer, View No 13: Interior of Higgins' Yard.

The View Speaks For Itself from Report of Dr Ballard to lh< Local
Government Board, etc. . . . upon the Slaughter-Houses and Slaughter-
Yards in the Borough, and as to the Establishment of a Public Abattoir,

28 J u n e 1880. (Leeds City Libraries, Local History Depart-

ment)

27. E d m u n d & Joseph Wormald, Slaughter-House Looking Towards

21

22

x List of Plates

Entrance, Vicar Lane, c.1893. (Leeds City Libraries, Local History

Department)

28. Unknown photographer, Yard off Harrison's Buildings from City

of Leeds, Insanitary Areas, 1896. (University of Leeds, Brotherton

Library)

29. Unknown photographer, Yard in Paper Mill, Looking East from

Photographs of Properties of Petitioners in the Quarry Hill Unhealthy

Area, 1901. (University of Leeds, Brotherton Library)

30. Willie Swift, Interior of Cellar Dwelling, Mushroom Court from D.

B. Foster, Leeds Slumdom. Illustrated with Photographs of Slum

Property by W. Swift, Leeds 1897. (Leeds City Libraries, Local

History Department)

31. Willie Swift, Group of Slum Children in Court Off Charlotte Street,

Holbeck from D. B. Foster, Leeds Slumdom, Leeds 1897. (Leeds
City Libraries, Local History Department)

32. Jai k Delano, Union Point, Georgia, 1941. (Library of Congress,

Prints and Photographs Division)

33. Russell Lee, Hidalgo County, Texas, 1939. (Library of Congress,

Prints and Photographs Division)

34. Walker Evans, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1935. (Library of

Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

35. Walker Evans, Edwards, Mississippi, 1936. (Library of Congress,

Prints and Photographs Division)

36. Lewis Hine, Young Couple, 1936. (WPA National Research

Project, National Archives, Washington, DC)

37. Lewis Hine, Cotton Mill Worker, 1912. (International M u s e u m

of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New
York)

38. Wiiiker Evans, Post Office at Sprott, Alabama, 1936. (Library of

Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

39. Doiothea Lange, Workers, Richmond, California, 1942. (Oakland

Museum)

40. Doiothea Lange, Family Bound for Krebs, Oklahoma, from Idabel,

Oklahoma, 1939. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs

Division)

Acknowledgements

Looking back over a period of ten years in which these essays were

produced, it would be impossible to acknowledge all the individuals
to whom this work is indebted. I want, however, to thank especially

the following, without whose conversations and support one or

other of the chapters which follow would have been the poorer:
Stevie Bczencenet, Victor Burgin, Tim Clark, Sande Cohen, J a m e s

Donald, Andrea Fisher, Stephen Hopwood, Vanessa Jackson,
Maureen Lea, Sarah McCarthy, Nicky Road, Jo Spcnce, T o m

Steele, Gabrielle Syme, Kate Walker, Tricia Ziff, Steve Kennedy

of Palgrave Macmillan, and Shirley Moreno, whose recent untimely
death is still mourned.

Research for these essays was begun with the aid o( a Fellowship

jointly funded by the Arts Council of Great Britain and the

Polytechnic of Central London. I remain grateful to both
institutions, as I am to the many students at the University of
Leeds and the University of California at Los Angeles who listened

so patiently and responded so encouragingly to my efforts to clarify

the concerns of this book.

T h e introductory essay and Chapter 5, 'God's Sanitary Law',

a p p e a r here for the first time. O t h e r chapters have been previously
published as follows: C h a p t e r 1 was based on a script prepared for

the O p e n University Popular Culture course, and published in
revised form as 'Portraits, Power and Production', in Ten:8 No. 13,

1984; C h a p t e r 2 appeared as ' T h e Burden of Representation:

Photography and the Growth of the State', in Ten:8, No. 14, 1984;

C h a p t e r 3 as 'Power and Photography - Part I, A Means of
Surveillance: T h e Photograph as Evidence in Law', in Screen
Education, No. 36, A u t u m n 1980; Chapter 4 as 'Power and

Photography - Part I I , A Legal Reality: T h e Photograph as

xii Acknowledgements

Property in Law', in Screen Education, No. 37, Winter 1981; C h a p t e r

6 as ' T h e Currency of the Photograph' in Screen Education, No. 28,
A u t u m n 1978; and C h a p t e r 7 under the same title in T. Dennett

and J. Spcncc (eds) Photography/Politics: One, Photography Work-
shop, L o n d o n , 1 9 7 9 .

T h e author a n d publishers wish to acknowledge, with thanks,

the following photographic sources: Barnardo Photographic Archive;

Cambridgeshire County Constabulary; Collectors' Editions, New
York; International M u s e u m of Photography at George E a s t m a n

House; Gcrnshcim Collection, H a r r y Ransom Humanities Research
Center, University of Texas at Austin; Kodak M u s e u m ; Leeds City
Libraries; University of Leeds, Brotherton Library; Library of

Congress, Washington; T h e Manscll Collection; National Archives,
Washington; National Portrait Gallery, London; M u s e u m of the
City of New York; T h e City of O a k l a n d , the Oakland M u s e u m ,
California; G r a h a m Ovenden; Public Record Office, London (ref:
P C O M 2/291); Royal Society of Medicine; T h e Trustees of the
Science M u s e u m , London; Stockport Library, Local History
Department; Syndication International; T h e Board of Trustees of
the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. T h e publishers have
made every effort to trace the copyright-holders, but if any have
been inadvertently overlooked, they will be pleased to make the
necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.

Los Angeles

John Tagg

Introduction

i

In his posthumously published book, Camera Lucida, Roland
Barthes, against his apparent interpreters, leaves us with a-poignant

rcassertion of the realist position. T h e camera is an instrument of
evidence. Beyond any encoding of the photograph, there is an

existential connection between 'the necessarily real thing which has
been placed before the lens' and the photographic image: 'every
photograph is somehow co-natural with its referent'. W h a t the
photograph asserts is the overwhelming truth that 'the thing has
been there': this was a reality which once existed, though it is 'a
reality one can no longer touch'.

1

The quiet passion of Barthes's rcassertion of a retrospective

photographic realism, whose unconscious signified must always be

the presence of death, has to be read against the death of his own

mother, his reawakened sense of unsupportable loss, and his search
for 'a j u s t image' and not 'just an image' of her.

2

His demand for

realism is a d e m a n d , if not to have her back, then to know she was
here: the consolation of a truth in the past which cannot be
questioned. This is what the photograph will guarantee:

T h e important thing is that the photograph possesses an
evidential force, and that its testimony bears not on the object
but on time. From a phenomenological viewpoint, in the
Photograph, the power of authentication exceeds the power of

representation.'

T h e image which is brought to mind is that of the photograph as
death-mask. But this same image serves to remind us that