Lynda Jessup

Some readings are more equal than others

Continuing refusal to see anything other than a stable distinction between critical studies that interrogate processes of representation and conventional studies that do not is providing new means to the reformation of social hierarchies at the very moment conventional, colonial means of reformulation are being exposed by examination. Here, consideration of two museum publications, one a critical study and one a more conventional, seemingly informational catalogue, makes the case in point. Examination reveals that both publications work together with their sponsoring organizations to restrict the meanings of photographs in museum collections and, in doing so, to naturalize the social relations those meanings privilege.