"Through a variety of case studies by global scholars from diverse fields of study, this book explores photographic album practices of historically marginalized figures from a range of time periods, geographic locations, and socio-cultural contexts. Their albums' stories span various racial, ethnic, and gender identities, sexual orientations and dis/abilities. The vernacular albums featured in this volume present narratives that move beyond those reflected in our existing histories to examine the visual strategies that album-makers have used to assert control over the presentation of their histories and identities, and to direct what those narratives have to say, especially as their albums move out of private domestic space and into public archives, institutions, and digital formats. This book does not consider photographic albums and scrapbooks as separate genres, but as a continuum of creative visual practices of photographic self-expression and narrative-building that co-evolved and were readily accessible. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, history of photography, visual culture, and media studies"-- Provided by publisher.
Introduction -- 1. The Album’s Diverse Narratives / Mary Trent -- Part I. Complicating Family Narratives -- 2. Women on Holiday: Intergenerational Narratives in Photographic Albums from India / Suryanandini Narain -- 3. ‘Children of Shadowland’: A Family’s Scrapbook Story of Intellectual Disability / James Trent -- 4. Henry Darger’s 'Family' Album of American Orphans and Fugitives / Mary Trent -- Part II. Stepping Out of "the Closet," Privately -- 5. ‘Dropping Hairpins’: Cisgender Performance and ‘Homosociality’ in William Whitney’s Fin-de-Siècle College Albums / Kris Belden-Adams -- 6. A Scissored Gay Life of the 1930s and 1940s: The Scrapbooks of Ogden Salmon / James A. Kaser -- 7. In Plain Sight: Album-Making and Queer Identity in Mid-Twentieth-Century South Africa / Danielle Kinsey -- Part III. Retelling National and International Histories -- 8. ‘We Carry the Weight of a 150-Year Legacy’: Sharing the Memories of a Civil War Photograph Album / Michèle Gates Moresi -- 9. The Politics of Floating: Space and Experience in G. Prat photograph album of China and Japan, 1874-1900 / Xinyue Yuan -- 10. Collecting the Indian Congress: Reframing Indigenous Photography Albums from the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition / Karen Barber -- 11. Secrets from the Family Album: Official and Silenced Knowledge on Migration / Ya’ara Gil-Glazer -- Part IV. Conclusions -- 12. Conclusions: Albums and Diverse Communities / Kris Belden-Adams -- Afterword / Margaret Rose Vendryes