The Ways in Which I Never Thought About My Great-Grandfather: An Essay on the Potentials of Photography as a Historical Document

• Main Author: Filip Mitričević
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije 2020-12-01
• Series: Токови историје
• Subjects: photography; world war ii; historiography; sources; roland barthes
• Online Access: http://tokovi.istorije.rs/eng/uploaded/3%202020/Tokovi%20istorije%203%202020.-247-268.pdf

This paper is on the trail of answering the theoretical question of the potential of photography as a historical source. The paper does not aim for a historical reconstruction in the classical sense but is an attempt to show the reach of this visual media in historical research, based on the correlation of a sample of family photographs, oral history, and theory. By employing the author’s “personal voice,” the paper attempts to correlate particularities with a broader context and general theory. The author uses photographs of his great-grandfather, made at a prisoner-of-war camp during the World War II, to show the limitations of photography as a historical source.