Framing A House, Photography and the Performance of Heritage

Abstract

Using data from qualitative research on vernacular housing, this paper discusses the role of photography in the heritage restoration of an outport community in Newfoundland. An assessment of the instrumental role usually played by photography in ethnographic and material culture research is made in light of the vernacular uses of photography. The socially coded and symbolic character of this built environment signals distinct taste and class cultures which are performed in narrative and material media. Photography contributes to the local performance of the past and the sign value of the built environment: it legitimates the invention of heritage and at the same time offers a means for local residents to contest dominant codings of their houses. In developing this case study, the role of photography will be considered from a variety of perspectives: as a research tool for the ethnography of communication; as a resource that offers access to categories of local knowledge; as a communicational practice that provides a corpus of texts for oppositional readings; and as a problematic representational form which raises questions about the medium in relation to research.

Résumé

Cet article fait l’analyse de la photographie en tant que ressourcedocumentaire dans le cadre d’un projet de restauration patrimoniale à Terre-Neuve. L’usage vernaculaire de la photographie nous aide à mieux comprendrele rôle significatif que joue la photographie au sein de l’ethnographie et dans lesrecherches sur la culture matérielle. Nous pouvons décoder la symbolique del’environnement architectural d’un village, par exemple, en regardant de près lafaçon dont certaines distinctions sociales et culturelles se transmettentnarrativement. La photographie fait ainsi partie de la «théâtralisation» du passé,de l’environnement bâti: elle légitime l’«invention du patrimoine» tout enpermettant aux habitants de contester l’idéologie dominante et son interprétationde leurs propres maisons.