Zelda Alice Franceschi Università di Bologna
dx.doi.org/10.12835/ve2023.1-119
Abstract
The article reflects on the significance of certain photo
graphic portraits and old family photographs for some indigenous wi
chís of the Argentine Chaco.
If in the photographic portraits taken at their request one notices, from
the poses they assume, a certain conventionalism, in the photographs
taken by a young indigenous boy a marked creativity emerges, and in
the family photographs shown to me one perceives a vivid desire to
preserve historical memory through images.
Each photograph is followed by a story, a comment, a kind of ekfrasis
that guides the shot or accompanies the moment when old photo
graphs are shown. Photographs are like life stories: choral and personal
at the same time, they prompt reflection on their meaning and value
and on the meaning they have from the point of view of their materia
lity and the emotions they convey.
This is the main objective of the article, which is followed by that of the
desired restitution. It is therefore not a review of studies on the role of
photography in anthropological and indigenous studies, but rather a
reflection that can be shared with the protagonists of the images and
stories.
Keywords
Photographs, indigenous, wichís, memory, creativity, restitution, affection.
