(The prime instigatorof these modernization efforts, Sir Robert Peel, happened to be a major collectorof seven1. But thisvelvetwit plays about an iron cage whichwas then in the process ofbeing constructed.Although no "Police Act" had yet embraced photography,the 1820s and '30s had engendered a spate of governmentalinquiries and legislation designed to professionalizeand standardize police and penal procedures in Britain, the most importantof which were the Gaols Act of 1823 and the Metropolitan Police Acts of 18.
By the thirdverse of this song, however, a new socialorder is predicted: The new Police Act will takedowneach fact That occurs in its wide jurisdiction And each beggar and thiefin the boldest relief Will be giving a colorto fiction.' Again, the last line of the verse yields a surplus wit, playing on the figurative ambiguityof"givinga color,"which could suggestboth the elaboration and unon the obvious monochromaticlimitamasking of an untruth,playing further tionsof the new medium, and on the approximatehomophonyofcolor and collar. Photography promises mastery nature, and anarchy, an incendiarylevelbut photographyalso threatensconflagration ing of the existingcultural order. This is also a premature fantasyof the triumphof a massculture,a fantasywhich reverberates with an enhanced of political foreboding. But danger resides not only in the numerical proliferation of images. bilityof a technologicaloutpacing of already this context, photographyis not the harbinger of modernity,for the world is already modernizing. I stress this point because this song does not pit photographyagainst a static traditionalculture, but ratherplays on the possiIn expanding cultural institutions. The somewhat mockinghumor of thisverse is more pronounced ifwe consider that the National Gallery had only moved to its new, classical building on Trafalgar Square in 1838, the collection having grown rapidly since the gallery's founding in 1824. Initially, photography threatens to overwhelm the citadels of high culture. Ple, followingthe French governmentannouncement of the daguerreotypein August 1839, a song circulated in London which began with the following verse: O Mister Daguerre! Sure you're not aware Of half the impressionsyou're making, By the sun's potent rays you'll set Thames in a blaze, While the National Gallery's breaking. This versionwas completedwiththe assistance of a Visiting Senior Fellowship at the Center forAdvanced Studies in the Visual Arts,The National Gallery of Art,Washington,D.C., summer 1986. The simultaneous threatand promise of the new medium was recognized at a very early date, even beforethe daguerreotypeprocess had proliferated.For exam* Earlier versions of this essay were presented at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, October 2, 1982, and at the College Art Association Annual Meeting, New York, February 13, 1986. The sheer range and volume of photographicpractice offers ample evidence of the paradoxical status of photographywithinbourgeois culture. great - Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1859 On theoneside we approach more to closely whatis goodand beautiful on theother, vice and suffering are shut up withinnarrower limits and we have to dreadless themonand moral, which havethe strosities, physical intothesocial powerto throw perturbation framework. there mustbe arranged a comprehensive so that there system ofexchanges, might grow likea universal up something currency ofthese orpromises to pay in solid subbanknotes, stance,whichthesun has engraved for the Bank ofNature. This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Sun, 19:25:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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THE BODY AND THE ARCHIVE ARCHIVE
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at. 3-64 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL. The Body and the Archive Author(s): Allan Sekula Source: October, Vol.