Photographic Ecosystems and Archives

Abstract

This article offers a theoretical framework for understanding the social structures embedded in photographic archives. More specifically, it examines the ways in which archives, with their multiple physical and online presences, function within various photographic ecosystems. I propose that there exist at least three different but interconnected types of archive biographies — social, material and value biographies — and argue that these biographies may change over time, in the hands of different individuals, and when shifting from one ecosystem to another. Furthermore, not all images in a specific ecosystem are equal, as some will have a more active social life and thus are more dominant. As a case study, I use the photographic archive of the Stiftung Hans Arp und Sophie Taeuber-Arp e.V. in Berlin, Germany, which houses the personal photographs of artists Hans Arp (1886–1966) and Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943).