Mieke Bleyen

The (De)Construction of National Photography in Minor Photographies: The Case of Marcel Marien

This article explores the relation between photography and the nation, taking the Belgian context as a starting point. Belgian photographies, as defined in this essay, have been repeatedly described as exempt from schools, centres, towering figures, or strong institutions. Due to this absence of positive identity, it is impossible to approach Belgian photographies from an essentialist perspective. This essay argues that new methodological questions, which generally address photography in its multiplicity and its context sensitiveness, are needed for the specific study of Belgian photographies. The authors develop such a new set of questions by proposing to transfer the notion of ‘minor literature’, as theorised by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, to the study of photography. They end with a close reading of two images by Marcel Mariën, which they consider a case of minor photography in Belgium in the 1950s.