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Refracted Visions: Popular Photography and National Modernity in Java (Objects/Histories) by Karen Strassler, 1969- is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is Refracted Visions: Popular Photography and National Modernity in Java (Objects/Histories) about?

A young couple poses before a painted backdrop depicting a modern building set in a volcanic landscape; a college student grabs his camera as he heads to a political demonstration; a man poses stiffly for his identity photograph; amateur photographers look for picturesque images in a rural village; an old woman leafs through a family album. In Refracted Visions, Karen Strassler argues that popular photographic practices such as these have played a crucial role in the making of modern national subjects in postcolonial Java. Contending that photographic genres cultivate distinctive ways of seeing and positioning oneself and others within the affective, ideological, and temporal location of Indonesia, she examines genres ranging from state identification photos to pictures documenting family rituals.Oriented to projects of selfhood, memory, and social affiliation, popular photographs recast national iconographies in an intimate register. They convey the longings of Indonesian national modernity: nostalgia for rural idylls and “tradition,” desires for the trappings of modernity and affluence, dreams of historical agency, and hopes for political authenticity. Yet photography also brings

Who reads Refracted Visions: Popular Photography and National Modernity in Java (Objects/Histories)?

Author

Karen Strassler, 1969-

Publisher

Duke University Press Books

Published

2010

Language

EN

ISBN

9780822391548

Category

nonfiction

Subjects

Photography, Art, Arts

Rating

3.94 / 5 (33 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14