The post-war construction site in photographs

Subtitle:the photographic collection of the Belgian contractor firm Van Laere (°1938)

Since the 19th century, construction site photographs have been a means of documenting the building pro-cess. However, the way in which the photographs are created, how they are viewed and how they are used, creates a context that influences what can be seen in the image. The question of how this evolved after 1945 remains largely open until today. By means of a case study into the photo archive of the Antwerp firm Van Laere (° 1938), this article attempts to show how the context and evolution of the company influenced the creation of their visual archive, but also the story within individual images. The history of the company is in-terrogated through a series of interviews and an analysis of their photographic collection. The paper aims to demonstrate that this context should certainly be taken into account in any further use of photographs as source material.

ISBN:978-1-003-17335-9

Publication year:2021

Keywords:P1 Proceeding

BOF-keylabel:yes

Accessibility:Closed