{"id":27168,"date":"2024-05-31T12:59:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T12:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/questions\/a-purgatory-of-consciousness-from-trauma-to-purification-african-american-photography-from-1840-to-the-present\/"},"modified":"2024-05-31T12:59:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T12:59:58","slug":"a-purgatory-of-consciousness-from-trauma-to-purification-african-american-photography-from-1840-to-the-present","status":"publish","type":"questions","link":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/questions\/a-purgatory-of-consciousness-from-trauma-to-purification-african-american-photography-from-1840-to-the-present\/","title":{"rendered":"A PURGATORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS FROM TRAUMA TO PURIFICATION: AFRICAN AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY FROM 1840 TO THE PRESENT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Please edit this bibliography in MLA format and elucidate any paragraphs related to the thesis in the annotated bibliography section. The abstract and thesis are below for reference. 12 font Times New Roman double-spaced.  <\/b><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>Abstract<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

In this dissertation,
\nI <\/span>examine how Black individuals have been historically represented
\nand perceived through the medium of photography. I investigate the concept of a
\nBlack photographic gaze\u2014a way of observing with a questioning eye\u2014through its
\nrelationship to both individual and collective consciousness. In so doing, I
\nexplore a key question: how does African American photography reveal trauma and
\npurification? <\/span>Drawing on the
\ndiscourse of the optical unconscious, my analysis focuses on the violence that
\nis left to the viewer\u2019s imagination. It uses phenomenological hermeneutics to
\ncreate an interpretive translation of transhistorical African American
\nphotography of present and absent trauma and power. This method yields ambivalent
\nperspectives that I call a purgatory of Black consciousness. Although Black
\nindividuals look to the camera as a space of purification and imagination, photography
\nhistorically pictured the trauma and suffering of Black individuals. I argue
\nthat viewing these images places Blacks in a \u201chold\u201d within their consciousness
\nand lived experience. I draw on what I call photographic hermeneutic
\nconsciousness to interpret the meaning of an image in relation to the
\nunconscious and collective consciousness evident in the photograph, a
\nmethodology that calls for a new way of interpreting an image that seeks to
\nexamine Black consciousness. Phenomenology alone falls short of this goal. Hermeneutics
\nallows one to transcend that descriptive phenomenology into a meaning specific
\nto one\u2019s life. This contrasts with the universal truth that science aims for
\nthrough pure perception.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Keywords:<\/span><\/b> Purgatory, Black Consciousness, African
\nAmerican Photography, Trauma, Recognition<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Thesis: Black photographers have been creating images since one year after French artist and photographer Louis J. M. Daguerre invented the daguerreotype, a photographic technique that \u201ccreated a likeness\u201d on iodized paper (Willis xv). In 1840, Jules Lion (1810\u20131866), a French-born free man of color, established a daguerreotype studio in New Orleans, enabling African Americans to produce such \u201clikeness.\u201d Lion was one of a few Black individuals, including Frederick Douglass, who used the new medium as a photographic who understood the cultural power of the Black photographic subject. An abundance of photographs from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries depict African Americans in demeaning and racist situations, exhibit Black trauma and death, and perpetuate stereotypes of Black physiognomy. This dissertation examines trauma as a genealogical axis that is latent in photographs, as I discuss further below. Many Black photographers have responded to this repository of images by contradicting such depictions of the Black subject. Many other Black photographers are interested in visualizing blackness for its own sake.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

As a visual representation, a photograph captures a specific moment in time and space. It extends beyond what the human eye can see. In this thesis, I focus on the phenomenological representation of African American trauma as reinterpreted through the lenses of Black photographers. More specifically, my research advocates for alternative ways of viewing and interpreting images. The topic of my dissertation is thus Black consciousness as expressed through the photographic process. I explore photography as a model of transhistorical Black aesthetics, affording priority to contemporary philosophical perspectives within the discourse of ongoing violence and subjugation. My research question is thus as follows: how does African American photography reveal trauma and purification? Additionally, what are the implications of the optical unconsciousness of the Black subject? By examining the subconscious relationship between the photographer and their subject during the contemporary image-making process, I aim to uncover patterns from the past. This facilitates a process of healing and contributes toward enabling one to understand the influence of the unconscious mind on behaviors and lived experiences. My analysis focuses on the unconscious perceptions of both the viewer and the image.

To lay the groundwork for my methodology, the thesis investigates the philosophical genealogy of the photograph. It sheds light on how photography intensifies violence against the Black subject and contributes to an ambivalent understanding of the purgatory of consciousness. In religious contexts, purgatory is a state or place where souls undergo purification or temporary punishment before reaching their ultimate destination. It thus serves as a transitional state between life on Earth and the afterlife. In this research, I question whether the process of creating a photograph allows for such a transitional relationship between reality and imagination. In what ways does photography, viewed as a purification process, reflect the aspirations of early Black photographers and their contemporary counterparts? This concept will be explored further below.

As such, this thesis focuses on transhistorical African American photography. More specifically, it grapples with the reverberations and vestiges of trauma that are often absent yet implied in African American photography, with an emphasis on the violence that is left to the viewer\u2019s imagination. How can photography serve as an archive for tracing these remnants? I argue that these traces, whether they are visible or not, persist within the collective consciousness of Black life, existing within the ongoing violence and traumas of enduring the aftermath of slavery. I further argue that the legacies of slavery continue to shape and haunt contemporary Black existence, a state described by Christina Sharpe as being \u201cin the wake\u201d (page ref.). This phrase refers to being caught in the turbulent and often destructive currents of this historical and ongoing violence. It involves tackling both the past and the present and understanding how historical traumas persist and shape individual and collective experiences. Being \u201cin the wake\u201d thus entails confronting and reckoning with the ongoing impacts of slavery and racism on Black lives and communities.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Please edit this bibliography in MLA format and elucidate any paragraphs related to the thesis in the annotated bibliography section. The abstract and thesis are below for reference. 12 font Times New Roman double-spaced.   Abstract In this dissertation, I examine how Black individuals have been historically represented and perceived through the medium of photography. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"disciplines":[56],"paper_types":[],"tagged":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions\/27168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/questions"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions\/27168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=27168"},{"taxonomy":"paper_types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paper_types?post=27168"},{"taxonomy":"tagged","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tagged?post=27168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}