The Impossibility of the Portrait of the Indian and the Imposition of the Human Type as a Means of Representation

Abstract

Portrait and type are two opposite ways of representing the human and obey to completely diverse logics. The portrait is an effort to highlight the most distinctive features of an individual, while the type, on the contrary, takes up what is common to various individuals, thus establishing a logic of de-individualization. In the New World, the type was the privileged representation of the Indian, since the portrait was exclusive to the social layers of European background. Afterwards, in the age of photography, the Indian will continue being shown as an indigenous type, either on postcards or in scientific publications. This paper is a reflection on the aesthetical-political logics underlying the establishment of the type as a privileged way of representing the Indian. Finally, we are analyzing the indigenous type in Martin Chambi’s work, photographer who first attempted to disrupt that category.