kiji John Tagg’s “The Burden of Representation”: An Archaeology of Evidence and Governance
John Tagg's The Burden of Representation is an archaeology of the photographic archive. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) A photo's "evidentiary power" is not inherent but is produced by institutional archival procedures (police, medical); 2) "Documentary" is not a neutral record but a tool of "governmentality" (a Foucauldian concept) for classifying and disciplining subjects; 3) How photography (e.g., police files) constructs and fixes social identity; 4) A methodology focused on documents and practices, not masterpieces.