Iconic Distance: Circulating Photographs from Southeast Asia around 1900

Dr. Sophie Junge

Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow

University of Zurich/University College London

The photographic representation of colonial Indonesia and Singapore is marked by a paradox. Hundreds of photographs and reproduced images of colonized cities, landscapes, and people can be found in European archives today. Clearly, the popularity of these printed photographic image around and after 1900 proves that there was/is great historical interest in the (former) European Colonies. Their extensive visual canon however presents a surprising monotony: photographs of the urban environment of the colonial harbour cities Surabaya and Singapore, for instance, show a specific emptiness in content and composition. They make the two cities visible while avoiding to present their local specificity. Furthermore, only few recurring motifs have been reproduced on picture postcards, in illustrated magazines and travel guidebooks throughout the 20^th century.

The project examines the historical visibility of the former Dutch and British colonial cities Surabaya and Singapore. As important harbour- and trade towns, they were not only similar due to their geographical proximity, but also because of their social diversity due to an (increasing? High?) number of international entrepreneurs, officials, merchants and tourists. Despite these parallels they were part of two different colonial empires and were therefore oriented towards two distinct political, geographical and social reference systems.

Following a micro-historical approach, the study focuses on the representation of the colonial built environment, the photographic production in Surabaya and Singapore, as well as the reception of these images. On picture postcards or in travel guidebooks, they circulated far beyond the colonies and reached various audiences across the globe.

The project presents unpublished visual materials from archives, museums, and libraries in Europe and Southeast Asia.  As artistic, visual, and historical actors, these photographic materials give (us) insights into the meaning of colonialism in Europe and Southeast Asia, as well as the transnational history of the photographic reproduction since 1900.