Title: Something Old … Remembering Korean Wedding Hall Photographs from the 1980s
Abstract: ABSTRACT Walter Benjamin argues that photographs are valued witnesses to events but that, as objects of mechanical reproduction, they are bereft of the aura of authenticity vested in ritual artifacts. This discussion of Korean wedding portraits muddles the dichotomy between “witness” and “artifact” so as to suggest that the witnessing capacity of these photographs was inextricably tied to the ritual “work” of weddings as both elements in and artifacts of the ceremony performed in a commercial wedding hall. By documenting that a wedding had transpired with appropriate ceremony and social support, photographs became an extension of the social witnessing that was a crucial validating element of the wedding itself. As a consequence, the artifactual aura of Korean wedding hall portraits in the 1980s was, precisely, in the mechanical reproduction of standard genres, fixed poses, and recognizable settings.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 8
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