cold weapons and Orientalism

[Philip]

Originally Posted by kronckew

Yup, American Civil War personal photos were usually taken by photographers that would tart them up by adding a firearm for them to hold or a knife to stick thru their belt in an inappropriate place "for the photo", which was from his own props and not selected for accuracy. Some posed photos by travellers have the same look "Could you move that knife a bit more to the right please, I can't see it too good in the viewfinder".

Yes indeed, I had overlooked Civil War America when writing my post. But how true! Photography was the hot new thing at the time, of course, and we know that human creativity has few bounds.

Years of looking for and at period photos of the Far East and the Subcontinent, I've become attuned to spotting the pinned-up bedsheet backdrops, ill-fitting bits of clothing, awkward poses of men who look like they spent their careers pushing brooms rather than wielding swords, their bodies draped with an assemblage of bazaar-grade armor and armament that would seriously hamper their movement in a duel or in battle. Ethnographic comic relief, I call it.