History and Modern Media: A Personal Journey
In History and Modern Media, John Mraz largely focuses on Mexican photography and his innovative methodology that examines historical photographs by employing the concepts of genre and function. He developed this method in extensive work on photojournalism; it is tested here through examining two genres: Indianist imagery as an expression of imperial, neo-colonizing, and decolonizing photography, and progressive photography as embodied in worker and laborist imagery, as well as feminist and decolonizing visuality.

The book interweaves an autobiographical narrative with concrete research. Mraz describes the resistance he encountered in US academia to this new way of showing and describing the past in films and photographs, as well as some illuminating experiences as a visiting professor at several US universities. More importantly, he reflects on what it has meant to move to Mexico and become a Mexican. Mexico is home to a thriving school of photohistorians perhaps unequaled in the world. Some were trained in art history, and a few continue to pursue that discipline. However, the great majority work from the discipline known as "photohistory" which focuses on vernacular photographs made outside of artistic intentions.

A central premise of the book is that knowing the cultures of the past and of the other is crucial in societies dominated by short-term and parochial thinking, and that today's hyper-audiovisuality requires historians to use modern media to offer their knowledge as alternatives to the "perpetual present" in which we live.
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History and Modern Media: A Personal Journey
In History and Modern Media, John Mraz largely focuses on Mexican photography and his innovative methodology that examines historical photographs by employing the concepts of genre and function. He developed this method in extensive work on photojournalism; it is tested here through examining two genres: Indianist imagery as an expression of imperial, neo-colonizing, and decolonizing photography, and progressive photography as embodied in worker and laborist imagery, as well as feminist and decolonizing visuality.

The book interweaves an autobiographical narrative with concrete research. Mraz describes the resistance he encountered in US academia to this new way of showing and describing the past in films and photographs, as well as some illuminating experiences as a visiting professor at several US universities. More importantly, he reflects on what it has meant to move to Mexico and become a Mexican. Mexico is home to a thriving school of photohistorians perhaps unequaled in the world. Some were trained in art history, and a few continue to pursue that discipline. However, the great majority work from the discipline known as "photohistory" which focuses on vernacular photographs made outside of artistic intentions.

A central premise of the book is that knowing the cultures of the past and of the other is crucial in societies dominated by short-term and parochial thinking, and that today's hyper-audiovisuality requires historians to use modern media to offer their knowledge as alternatives to the "perpetual present" in which we live.
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History and Modern Media: A Personal Journey

History and Modern Media: A Personal Journey

by John Mraz
History and Modern Media: A Personal Journey

History and Modern Media: A Personal Journey

by John Mraz

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Overview

In History and Modern Media, John Mraz largely focuses on Mexican photography and his innovative methodology that examines historical photographs by employing the concepts of genre and function. He developed this method in extensive work on photojournalism; it is tested here through examining two genres: Indianist imagery as an expression of imperial, neo-colonizing, and decolonizing photography, and progressive photography as embodied in worker and laborist imagery, as well as feminist and decolonizing visuality.

The book interweaves an autobiographical narrative with concrete research. Mraz describes the resistance he encountered in US academia to this new way of showing and describing the past in films and photographs, as well as some illuminating experiences as a visiting professor at several US universities. More importantly, he reflects on what it has meant to move to Mexico and become a Mexican. Mexico is home to a thriving school of photohistorians perhaps unequaled in the world. Some were trained in art history, and a few continue to pursue that discipline. However, the great majority work from the discipline known as "photohistory" which focuses on vernacular photographs made outside of artistic intentions.

A central premise of the book is that knowing the cultures of the past and of the other is crucial in societies dominated by short-term and parochial thinking, and that today's hyper-audiovisuality requires historians to use modern media to offer their knowledge as alternatives to the "perpetual present" in which we live.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780826501462
Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
Publication date: 04/15/2021
Series: Critical Mexican Studies
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 338
File size: 38 MB
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About the Author

John Mraz is a research professor at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico. He is the author of many books, including Photographing the Mexican Revolution: Commitments, Testimonies, Icons and Looking for Mexico: Modern Visual Culture and National Identity, as well as the director of award-winning documentary films.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: Reminiscences on the Voyage from a Visual Periphery Towards a Disciplinary Center
 
CINEHISTORIES
 
  1. Doing History with Light and Sound: From Compilation Films to Interview-Based Documentaries
 
PHOTOHISTORIES
 
  1. Seeing Photographs Historically: A Mexican View
 
  1. Historical Photographs: Genres, Functions, Methods, and Power
 
  1. Indianist Imagery: Imperial, Neocolonializing, and Decolonizing Photography
 
  1. Photography from the Left: Worker, Laborist, Feminist, and Decolonizing Imagery
 
EPILOGUE: “What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been”
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 
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