Photo Wallahs

In Photo hierarchicus: Signs and mirrors in Indian photography by David MacDougall, he writes about the idea of "stealing our souls" and photography. This idea may seem odd to most westerners but it is not to odd to all. If you do not understand how the photography process works, it seems like magic. Someone stands behind a box, takes a picture, processes it and then handles you a paper with your image.
MacDougall writes about class and photography studio hierarchy in India. It is interesting that no matter your social status, there is still a desire to have your photography taken. My family photo albums have a few really old photographs that have a studio name and address either stamped on the back or a corner. I wonder if the same class and photography studio hierarchy existed in the U.S.? Was there the same desire to have your photograph taken regardless of your status?
At one point MacDougall writes about the photographs that documented court life. He writes that the photographs show some people in fancy dress costumes for parties or dressed in traditional regalia and compares this to the tourists who dress up for costume photographers. But is these the same thing? The court life pictures present people in their reality; they are not pretending to be something they are not and they are not in disguise. When the tourists dress up in costumes, it is not their reality but only a fantasy. As MacDougall notes, there is a close correlation between the photographs and cinema and pretending temporarily to be someone you are not.
There is a contradiction in that the idea of the new middle class traveling for leisure is a modern idea while at the same time they dress up in costumes that reinforce gender roles. Two of the three categories reinforce gender stereotypes. For example, women dress up in traditional costumes with props such as a water jug or flowers. Men dress up as powerful exotic figures.
Switching topics, in Christopher Pinney's Introduction to "How The Other Half…", he writes that in the cases of Jo-Anne Driessens and Michael Aird, the recoding of images came out of their discovery and recognition of images of family members stored in an archive and were formerly anonymous. I cannot help but wonder what this must have felt like. It must have been amazing to connect to your past via a photograph. He is right when he calls it a homecoming.