Selfhood, Place, and Ideology in German Photo Albums, 1933–1945
This article explores the significance of photography and photo album making as practices through which many Germans recorded their lives during the ‘Third Reich’. Millions of photos not only offer us insights into everyday life under National Socialism: mass photography itself had a transformative...
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| Format: | Article |
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Cambridge University Press
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29740/ |
| _version_ | 1848793842881396736 |
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| author | Umbach, Maiken |
| author_facet | Umbach, Maiken |
| author_sort | Umbach, Maiken |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article explores the significance of photography and photo album making as practices through which many Germans recorded their lives during the ‘Third Reich’. Millions of photos not only offer us insights into everyday life under National Socialism: mass photography itself had a transformative effect, turning seemingly mundane actions into performances for the camera and conscious acts of self-representation. The article also considers the relationship between amateur snapshots and propagandistic and commercial photographs. Identifying connections between these genres, it argues that these are best understood as two-ways processes of borrowing and (re-) appropriation, in which private subjectivity and public ideology constantly commingled. Particularly important in linking the two were photos of emotional or affective states, such as relaxation, exploration, introspection, and even melancholy, which were often defined or underscored by the way in which both civilians and soldiers positioned themselves in relation to particular landscapes. The photographic archive is highly varied, but such variation notwithstanding, it helped cement immersive ‘experience’ as the basis for individual and collective identity, which was central to the ideology of the National Socialist regime, even if its meanings were never wholly controlled by it. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:06:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-29740 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:06:44Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-297402020-05-04T17:15:58Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29740/ Selfhood, Place, and Ideology in German Photo Albums, 1933–1945 Umbach, Maiken This article explores the significance of photography and photo album making as practices through which many Germans recorded their lives during the ‘Third Reich’. Millions of photos not only offer us insights into everyday life under National Socialism: mass photography itself had a transformative effect, turning seemingly mundane actions into performances for the camera and conscious acts of self-representation. The article also considers the relationship between amateur snapshots and propagandistic and commercial photographs. Identifying connections between these genres, it argues that these are best understood as two-ways processes of borrowing and (re-) appropriation, in which private subjectivity and public ideology constantly commingled. Particularly important in linking the two were photos of emotional or affective states, such as relaxation, exploration, introspection, and even melancholy, which were often defined or underscored by the way in which both civilians and soldiers positioned themselves in relation to particular landscapes. The photographic archive is highly varied, but such variation notwithstanding, it helped cement immersive ‘experience’ as the basis for individual and collective identity, which was central to the ideology of the National Socialist regime, even if its meanings were never wholly controlled by it. Cambridge University Press 2015-09-17 Article PeerReviewed Umbach, Maiken (2015) Selfhood, Place, and Ideology in German Photo Albums, 1933–1945. Central European History, 48 (3). ISSN 0008-9389 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/central-european-history/article/selfhood-place-and-ideology-in-german-photo-albums-19331945/3373B43CD207B8C51991034EA250B52D doi:10.1017/S0008938915000783 doi:10.1017/S0008938915000783 |
| spellingShingle | Umbach, Maiken Selfhood, Place, and Ideology in German Photo Albums, 1933–1945 |
| title | Selfhood, Place, and Ideology in German Photo Albums, 1933–1945 |
| title_full | Selfhood, Place, and Ideology in German Photo Albums, 1933–1945 |
| title_fullStr | Selfhood, Place, and Ideology in German Photo Albums, 1933–1945 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Selfhood, Place, and Ideology in German Photo Albums, 1933–1945 |
| title_short | Selfhood, Place, and Ideology in German Photo Albums, 1933–1945 |
| title_sort | selfhood, place, and ideology in german photo albums, 1933–1945 |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29740/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29740/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29740/ |