Photo Analysis | Edges of Empire | KNW 2399: Edges of Empire

March 28, 2017
by Ethan Jorasch
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The Implementation of an Economic System

Bengal-Nagpul Railway Construction, Photograph NO.16

Townshend, J.C

The photograph depicts a long sprawling ditch with hundreds of workers crawling over it like ants. Suspended about thirty feet in the air, they cross the ditch on a very rickety bridge. The crowd is not only men, as there are as many women as men. Trudging across the bridge, they bring heavy resources to the other side of the ditch. This scene illustrates the colonial rulers lack of care for the safety of their indigenous workers. They solely care about the profits to be made from the railroad, accompanied along with sale of natural resources pulled from the ground. It can be inferred that they recruited large numbers of villagers to fill their labor force as it consists of both men and women and stretches as far as the eye can see. This raises the question as to why they recruited only dark skinned people? The entire labor force consists of dark skinned individuals, so it can be deduced that they provided a cheap and easy labor opportunity, leaving no reason to hire anyone else. This is furthered by the fact that there are no European supervisors in the photograph, only indigenous workers. This extends the question as to why not? This question could be answered in one of two ways; either the colonialist supervisors are worried that their treatment of workers could cause them trouble down the road if photographed, or they recruited indigenous workers as supervisors. India had a long-standing caste system that they could have played off of to construct an economic system.

Mining Operations

Thomas Hudson Thatcher

The picture illustrates a mining operation in Mexico. Old wood cabins contrasted against the rocky mountainside show how rustic the conditions are. Horses and men fill the picture, spread throughout the worksite. The worker’s dark skin is blackened by the bright sunlight, even under the protection of their clothing. The cabins allude to the fact that the indigenous workers spent all of their time on site. The work force is completely indigenous, as not a single white European is seen. Their clothes are all standardized, as if to possibly represent a company uniform for the workers. From this, the deduction can be made that the workers are given housing and clothing in exchange for labor. But if the goal is to search for cheap labor then why are their only men working here? The Bengal-Nagpul Railway Construction shows men and women engaging in dangerous manual labor, so why is it any different here? Were there more labor standards in Mexico, or was mining just considered man’s work? This allows for the deduction that the indigenous laborers, although given horrible working conditions, had worker’s rights, as women seem to not be allowed to work in the most dangerous of environments.

March 28, 2017
by Sam Dunkelberg
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Economics and Infrastructure of Mexico and India

This photograph depicts the construction of a railroad in India. There are hundreds of workers at this particular site with a variety of jobs. While most people do manual labor and carry containers on their heads, there are a few men dressed in all white who appear to be supervising the work. The people raise a few questions. Were these workers brought in randomly from the surrounding population or did racial classifications play a role in who did the manual labor? Are the men in white considered superior people capable of supervising the others? Additionally, what was the death rate among railroad workers? The landscape surrounding the construction is completely decimated. Where there used to be a forest there is now simply a dirt pit with crisscrossing paths and naked trees. The industrial footprint is massive considering the railroad stretched a long distance. The image makes viewers wonder how the native people felt watching the destruction of their land for the sake of European efficiency and potential to colonize further.

This photograph depicts a massive oil refinery located on a river in Minatitlan, Mexico. Despite the lack of people in the photograph it is easy to imagine hundreds of workers on the ground running the refinery. There are multiple boats on the river potentially showing that trade was taking place and that the oil refinery played a large role in this area’s commerce. The refinery and commerce on the river raise several questions. Where did the workers in the refinery come from and were they paid at all? How much of the oil is being traded away and how much stays in the area for local power? Who profited from this giant enterprise? It is important to note the large industrial footprint this refinery has on the surrounding land. The vegetation is destroyed and replaced with machinery. The potential for pollution is huge as the pond connected to the refinery appears to have significant amounts of oil in it and is separated from the river by only a thin wall of dirt.

March 28, 2017
by Ted Billock
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On the Western Front in Colonized Mexico

Scene on Balderas St. ‘reconstruction’ (Mexico View Company)

In this photograph the viewer sees the recovery of a town that had just been ravaged by the chaos of war. Bullet holes paint the walls of the buildings while debris is littered throughout the streets. Despite these images of destruction, there also images of men working to rebuild their battered town. There is much work to do but these men show that they are too defeated to do anything in earnest. The men in this photo will be able to eventually rebuild the town but they will never forget the images of violence that consumed the town days earlier. (100 Words)

March 28, 2017
by Ted Billock
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Hierarchy on the Railroads in India

Bengal-Nagpur Railway Construction, Photograph No. 09 (Townshend, J.C.)

This photograph displays a group of workers posing for a picture before they begin the daunting task of cutting through the mountainside to make way for a railroad. The photograph tells a story of the organizational hierarchy put in place to manage the building of these railroads through Bengal, India. There are clear distinctions in the mannerisms and clothing on each man indicating that they all play a specific role in the construction of the railways. Safety does not appear to be a concern for these men as they casually take one last photo before beginning their work.

March 28, 2017
by Scott Myer
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The Colonized Worker

The title of this photograph is “Agrees, or Salt Cultivators of Salsette”, and the photographer is William Johnson. The direction the people in this photograph face is really interesting, as two of the subjects are facing rightward, one is facing leftward, and one is directly facing the camera. Both women and one man are standing, with the second man sitting down and leaning on a pole. There appears to be a fence that the standing subjects are leaning on. In the background, there are ruins of old buildings and general floral overgrowth. You can deduct from the facial expressions that these people are tired, most likely from work. Their garments are also rather basic, and they lack shoes, leading me to believe that they are not wealthy. This photo raises the questions of it they have just completed a long day of work, and what their living conditions are like, given their surroundings and dress.

The title of this photograph is “Selling Flowers at Market near Cathedral City of Mex.”, photographed by C.B. Waite. The main subjects of the photo are flower merchants, who are dressed in all white and seated on the ground and benches. In front of the merchants lay spreads of flowers, almost wreath like, and around them walk shoppers. This appears to take place in a city center area, almost an urban park like setting. In the background, there appears to be a large tent, possibly the main market area. The peripheral subjects (that is, the shoppers) are blurred, which makes the photo appear semi-candid, because not all of the people are still. This photograph raises the question of if these flower merchants also grow the flowers outside of the city, or if they simply buy the flowers from farmers.

March 28, 2017
by Thomas Andrews
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Industrializing Trade Routes

The development of photography has maintained its strong impact on culture well through today. Just as we often “filter” our pictures today to show our world and/or points of view, so too did peoples back when photography was initially developed. Today, our technology and access to historical photography allows us to transcend time and learn evermore with visual analysis. The photographs below depict vivid historical picture documentation of the immense railroad (construction) projects in India and the Americas. Through the photographs we will delve into a key economic component of the world hundreds of years ago, the transportation of and access to goods and resources.

Above is the 1890 picture Bengal-Nagpur Railway Construction by Townshend, J.C. It depicts the massive undertaking of terraforming the Indian subcontinent’s landscape by the British to fit their needs, in this case for the Nagpur Railway. In it you can hardly make out the three millimeters tall figures in the middle that give scale to this project. In the foreground you see the deforestation of the woods you see in the background. The focus of the picture is on the bend in the rail line, showing the incredible amount of construction required. It makes you think about attitude the British had for the wildlife and natural landscape of India. The enormity of this project only hints to the perils faced by the laborers while avoiding depicting the horrendous treatment and living conditions captured in other photographs. It shows how the British would move heaven and earth for the sake of economic gains and “civilizing” other cultures. Like most rail lines in India, the primary use was for hastening transportation of goods and resources, with a minor focus on moving the peoples. Also, like nearly all railways, it was likely financed by investors in Britain, who were able to bear great returns on this kind of investment since it was build with cheap-to-free labor, subsidized by the British Empire, and in the heart of the cotton empire.

This is a photograph of the Acueducto de Queretaro F.C. Central, also known as the Central Railroad Aqueduct at Queretaro, taken in 1875-99 (Creator Unknown). It depicts a railroad line passing though an aqueduct system reminiscent of European architecture. The desert environment of Queretaro is captured by the arid looking soil in the foreground and sparsely vegetated rolling hill in the back ground. The juxtaposition of the water above and rail below beautifully illustrate several essential elements for the new Mexican government; natural necessities (water), economic gains (the railroad), and technological innovations (the electrical power lines). The aqueduct spans diagonally across the picture, showing its grandeur and massiveness while the railroad intersects it in an X formation. This makes the railroad appear to be endless in both directions. As was the case for many railways, this was multifunctional. It served as an economic tool to increase access to and transportation of goods, recourse, and people. The scale of the project is not as dramatically portrayed as other photographs, instead this one makes a certain type of elegance and ease in its grandeur. Unlike many other photographs, there are no laborers in this because this line is complete. We therefore are unable to see the conditions born from this project; however, we can assume it resembled the trends of other contemporary railway projects.

March 28, 2017
by Katherine McGowan
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Women of Different Cultures

Title of Painting/Photograph: Maria
Painter/Illustrator/Photographer: Scott, Winfield

This photo of Maria by Winfield Scott explores the life of a Mexican girl. The photo shows one girl who has a soft smile on her face with her hair done and a necklace on. She is wearing a boat neck short-sleeved top that ends at about her belly button. Her top is big suggesting that she plans to wear it for many more times in the future years. She has a skirt on that is not fitted as well and looks as though it has a lot of extra fabric that is tied together in the back of the skirt. The skirt doesn’t quite meet her top, which suggests that it is not thing to look down on that she has her stomach showing throughout the day. Her skirt goes down to her calves and she has no shoes on. Her feet aren’t dirty though, which would make one to think that she is not working in the dirt. The girl is slouched over and awkwardly has her arms posed on a pile of cement bricks that look like they are just extra pieces from the house that they are against. While she is sitting, she is also holding a bowl that looks like it has been used recently. You can tell from the photo that the photographer has positioned her in the photo, as she seems very unnatural. The photo includes a brick wall that is uneven as it goes up vertically. This implies that it was handmade. Behind the girl are rows of tree branches tied up together by three horizontal tree branches. The tree branches are not nicely cut or in any kind of order. This tells us that they built this quickly to make a wall or a room with the surroundings around the house. The girl seems like she is hardworking due to her skirt seeming as though it has dirt on it and her surroundings. The surroundings around her makes you deduct that she isn’t very wealthy and works for the things she has. She is very simply dressed, but she is put together in a way that makes it seem as though this is her everyday look. What this photo leads the viewer to think about is what kind of work is she doing? How old is she? Why did the photographer decided or want to take a solo shot of her?

Title of Painting/Photograph: Parsee Ladies
Painter/Illustrator/Photographer: Johnson, William

The four Parsee women in this photo by William Johnson are positioned against a tree that is has been cut down and has only just four big trunks sticking out from the ground. Two of the women are leaning against the tree, while the third woman simply has her hand resting on the tree and the fourth woman is sitting on a footstool that looks like it has been placed just to be in the photo. The women are all clothed completely from their head to their toes. They all have socks or tights on with their shoes so that no skin is showing, although two of the women are showing their forearms in the photo. The women all have on jewelry and are showing it in the photo. The one woman who is sitting on the ground has a straight face and is looking to the side showing her profile, while the other three women are looking right into the camera. It looks as though they are trying to convey a message by having this posed shot and the one women on the ground not looking at the camera. This photo brings up the question if the women know each other or are related in someway together. What do these women have in common and who are they? Does the tree have any importance that goes along with the one girl sitting down? What is the girl looking at?

March 28, 2017
by Kevin Kirshner
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Cheap Labor

Colonel William C. Green with Arm Outstretched Addressing Crowd of Mexican Workers during Miners Strike, 1906, Cananea, Mexico

This photo features Colonel Wiiliam C. Greene, an American businessman who discovered copper reserves in Cananea, Mexico, addressing a large crowd of Mexicans. Greene would go on to create the Greene Consolidated Copper Company, and would in turn become one of the wealthiest businessmen in the world. As the title of the photo suggests, the Mexicans are miners that work under Greene, who are standing in the crowd he is addressing. Behind Greene, stands a crowd of white men, all holding guns. This conflict entails many of the common themes discussed throughout the semester. Namely, the oppression of native peoples by the European (and in this case, American) colonizers, who are stripping the colonized land of its natural resources in order to increase the wealth of the home-country, and the expense and oppression of the indigenous people. This photograph raises two questions, one asking whether or not this conflict turned violent, and was a spark for the revolution. The other question is whether or not the miners were being paid at all, or instead being held in prison camps, which would allow one to deduce of Greene came to be so wealthy.

http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/mex/id/173/rec/5

Cirebon – Kroya Railway Line Bridge over the Kali Serayu River under Construction

This photo, taken in Central Java, India, shows the construction of a railway line between the cities of Cirebon and Kroya. The function of this rail line was to ship the natural resources of British-colonized India, back to the home country. This enabled the British to take advantage of a much more efficient shipping method, thus allowing for increased profits from the stripping of India’s natural resources. Pictured in the photo are dozens of workers, all of which appear to be native-born Indians. This allows one to deduce that the British were taking advantage of cheap-or even slave-labor on the part of the Indians. Additionally, even several child laborers are pictured. A question that this photo brings up however, alludes to the lack of any white European supervisors, who one would deduce would need to be there in order to make sure the work was being done efficiently. Another question additionally, is why several of these indigenous peoples are pictures as fairly well dressed, while others are barely clothed, wearing rags.

http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/eaa/id/1751/rec/36

March 28, 2017
by Chase Patterson
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Imperialism in the Old and New Worlds

This is a photograph of then president of Mexico in 1902, Porifiro Diaz, inspecting his soldiers while doing a general review of the Mexican military. Diaz leads what appear to be several officers on horseback, while in the background of the photograph stand many Mexican troops awaiting to be inspected. The men in the foreground stand out not only because they are on horseback, but also because they are dressed in fine military regalia; one of them is even brandishing a sword. In the bottom left portion of the photograph one can see a small figure that may be a young boy. He seems to be dressed nicely, and could be the son of one of the Mexican officers. The photograph seems to be taken on an open plain, and it is hard to judge whether the ground is covered in grass or simply dirt. Next to the boy is the sword-wielding officer, who appears to be directing the troops behind him in preparation for the President’s arrival. Though it is hard to see the soldiers in the background, they do not necessarily appear to be in perfect formations nor is their clothing completely uniform. The biggest question that arises from this photograph is why the Mexican president felt it necessary to inspect his troops personally. Perhaps there were issues with morale or supplies, as the soldiers in the background do not completely resemble a professional standing army.

This photograph displays the 1890’s construction of a railroad spanning from the cities of Bengal to Nagpur under the guidance of the British Empire in India. The photograph shows a mixture of both Indian workers and what appear to be British overseers working on tunneling through a large mass of rock, likely a mountain. The Indian workers are wearing simple white garments, as well as headwraps. Some of these Indian men appear to have no shoes, indicating that they either preferred to work without them or simply could not afford to purchase anything to cover their feet. Some of the British men depicted in this photograph are in nice uniforms, while others are wearing work clothes similar to their Indian counterparts. The working conditions look miserable and unsafe, with no protective gear and rickety wooden supports preventing rock from crashing down on everyone. It is hard to derive the power structure between the British imperialists and Indian locals, as no one seems to be placed more prominently than anyone else in the photograph. The ladders in the background inside the arch they have constructed show that this is a very recent project, as they have made little headway into the tunnel. This sort of work would have been incredibly hazardous without modern safety procedures, and it is likely some of the men in this photograph died while working on the railway. The main question that arises is who are the British men wearing the uniforms and large hats. Were they part of the British military, or simply engineers tasked with being foremen on the project?

March 28, 2017
by Joe Marco Lesmana
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Markets and Economies

William Johnson
DeGolyer Library
1855-1862

Charles Betts Waite
DeGolyer Library
1904

The first image on the left shows Indians selling cotton at their cotton market. This image is titled the cotton Market and was taken by William Johnson and William Henderson. It was taken in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. In this photo, we can see that the cotton vendors are huddled together wearing traditional Indian outfits. Based on their line of work and clothing, we can deduce that they are of a lower social class or caste in the case of Indian society. The large amounts of cotton surrounding them appear to have been produced or stored from the building directly behind them and I assume that they are working under someone else. This picture appears to be taken during a sunny day where these Indian vendors are working under hot weather. Clear boredom is shown across their faces, many of which appear unhappy. It can be seen that they are already accustomed to working under hot weather and is indicative of their character as hardworking citizens.

The second image on the right is an image of Mexicans selling flowers at the market. This image is titled Selling Flowers at Market near capital city and was taken by Charles Betts Waites. It was taken in Mexico City. Large amounts of flower arrangements are scattered on the floor. The vendors appear to be wearing traditional Mexican garments which are identical amongst the flower vendors. The sombrero they wear is representative of their Mexican heritage. The large amount of people gathering in the market square indicate a booming economy where many people spend time in the market looking for things they would want to buy. Additionally, the marketplace seems to be a common pastime for Mexicans as they spend their days walking around looking at goods. Despite their low social status, the vendors seem to be smiling somewhat which indicates a level of satisfaction in their daily lives. An odd thing to note is that there appears to be a lack of differentiation amongst the flower vendors’ goods which might indicate a lack of innovation and creativity in the culture. The citizens of the city appear to be in high spirits.

These two photographs share many characteristics as they both depict a state of the economy of the respective countries. These two groups of people show citizens of low social standing attempting to sell their goods in the marketplace. In the cotton market of India, the market does not appear to be very busy and the vendors appear to be unhappy. On the other hand, the marketplace in Mexico City is bustling with activity whilst the vendors appear to be relaxed and satisfied, displaying a higher level of happiness on their faces. It can be assumed that the Spanish colonizers may have done a much better job than the British colonizers at motivating their merchants as the Indians look tortured whilst the Mexicans look pleasant. Both photographs are taken with each citizen wearing their individual country’s style of clothing, most likely to create a depiction of what Mexicans and Indians are like. The lack of product differentiation present in both pictures leads us to believe that both economies lacked innovation and sold most their goods in its base form. Though the focus of the two photographs are similar, the differences in detail allows us to understand the different outcomes different colonizers have created for their colonized.