Backdrop. Desert and Alterity Landscapes in the Photography of Patagonia (1880-1900)

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Carlos Masotta

Abstract

The Patagonian landscape built up by photography during the 18801900 periods was the framework in which the civilizing entrance took action. After a general description of the problem (the deserted landscape as the staging of absence) about the fi rst State’s albums on the region, I focus the analysis on two works describing the Territory of Chubut: Viaje a la Patagonia Austral (Trip to Southern Patagonia) by Coronel Luis Fontana (1886) and Excursión a la Patagonia y a los Andes (Tour to Patagonia and the Andes), de Aaron Anchorena (1902). The articulation of a military and civil glance can be observed between them, where the photographic landscape of the desert is involved in the material and symbolic shot of the territory as a stage where the acting of a civilizing entrance and the disappearance of the indigenous peoples is naturalized. 

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Author Biography

Carlos Masotta

CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires. Argentina cmasott@hotmail.com