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Retro Nuosu: Reclaiming the Past, Present, and Future through Participatory Portraits in Southwest China
Author(s) -
Banfill Kaitlin
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
visual anthropology review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.346
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1548-7458
pISSN - 1058-7187
DOI - 10.1111/var.12220
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , studio , mainstream , ethnic group , narrative , china , representation (politics) , modernity , context (archaeology) , aesthetics , photo essay , portrait , sociology , visual arts , gender studies , citizen journalism , photography , chinese art , politics , art , history , anthropology , literature , social science , political science , archaeology , law
ABSTRACT This article explores visual and ethnic representation among Nuosu Yi youth in contemporary China, where photographic subjects’ desires and agency compete with mainstream visual regimes. I argue that Nuosu Yi university students used self‐fashioning and photography to create a new yet radically retro narrative—one that asserts their political and cultural modernity in the Chinese national imagination. “Art photo” studios have recently inspired youth to express themselves through a markedly retro Nuosu aesthetic. In this project, I replicated an art photo studio and photographed fourteen individuals, revealing their individual desires and agency in the broader context of Chinese ethnic representation.