Paper short abstract:

The collection by Jānis Krēsliņš (1865 - ?) provides a chance to look at the development of the local patterns of the field of visual anthropology in the Baltic province of the Russian Empire in the 1890s.

Paper long abstract:

This paper on the representation of Latvian farmers in photography will examine relations between nation building, science, and modernity in the colonial society which inhabited the Baltic region of the Russian Empire in the late nineteenth century. The analysis focuses on the development of the local patterns of the field of visual anthropology which were profoundly shaped by the multicultural context and brought a very unique set of influences to the practice of photography.

In particular, this paper looks at the case study of the Latvian Ethnographic Exhibition taking place during the 10th Congress of Archaeology of the Russian Empire from August 1 to September 15, 1896. As the organizer of this exhibition, the Rīgas Latviešu Biedrība (Riga Latvian Association) commissioned Jānis Krēsliņš (1865 - ?) to take photographs of Latvian types for the 3rd Section of the Exhibition Anthropology and Statistics. The collection of more than two-hundred photographs provides a chance to look at the transmission and reception of scientific knowledge in the Baltic Provinces, how certain ideas originating in the centres of scientific culture became locally absorbed and appropriated by Latvian national movement. Moreover, the new technology offered Latvians an unprecedented opportunity for self-representation.

The key question concerns how the Latvian national movement adopted and absorbed scientific ideas in relation to its photographic practice? How these quasi-scientific representations of Latvian farmers were used to perform Latvian identity and shape its visual culture?