Abstract

This introduction to the special issue “Photographic Digital Heritage in Cultural Conflicts” calls for the development of research into the various local and global political circumstances that have influenced the absorption of historical photographs into the realm of digital heritage, alongside the study of the digital photographic heritagization practices triggered by this very process. Opening with an exploration of the emergence of “the heritage phenomenon”, it analyses how photography, heritage, and the political arena have become interlocked. The discussion then considers how historical photographs, digital heritage and cultural conflicts have subsequently also become entangled since the post-Cold War rising prevalence of digital technology, global interconnectedness and liberal democracy. These related conditions, it is suggested, have informed the growing digital heritagization of historical photographs and the methods used for their digitization, safeguarding and dissemination. Before introducing the individual contributions to the issue, the text therefore argues that the confluence of historical photographs and digital heritage must not be understood as a mere response to technological progress but as an articulation of politically-charged aspirations to capitalize on the common association of photographs with the past, to administer approaches to differing cultural values in a time of imposing liberal-democratic politics of consensus.

摘要

特刊“文化冲突中的摄影数字遗产”的介绍呼吁对影响历史照片被吸收到数字遗产领域的各种地方和全球政治环境进行研究，同时研究数字摄影这一过程引发的遗产化实践。以探索“遗产现象”的出现开始，分析摄影、遗产和政治舞台如何相互关联。然后，讨论会考虑自冷战后数字技术、全球互联和自由民主日益流行以来，历史照片、数字遗产和文化冲突如何随后变得纠缠不清。建议这些相关条件，已经告知了历史照片日益增长的数字遗产以及用于其数字化、保护和传播的方法。因此，在介绍对这个问题的个人贡献之前，文本认为历史照片和数字遗产的融合不能仅仅被理解为对技术进步的回应，而是对利用照片共同关联的政治抱负的表达。与过去一样，在强加自由民主政治共识的时代管理不同文化价值观的方法。