ayodh
Crania Philadelphia
A revised version of an image currently a part of the exhibition, 'A View of One's Own' at the Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania.
This image weaves cranial samples housed in the Penn Museum that were used for eugenic measurements by Samuel Morton in the mid-1800s with contemporary street photographs taken in “minority neighborhoods” in West Philadelphia, showing the lasting effects of racial theories from the past on the way this city is structured, inhabited and experienced today.
The exhibition at the Penn Museum displays replicas of Samuel Morton’s books on his findings titled “Crania Americana” and “Crania Aegyptiaca” which claimed to demonstrate the inferiority of non-white races. Morton’s work preceded by only a few decades the first wave of African Americans migrating into West Philadelphia from southern states after emancipation. West Philadelphia has subsequently become a home to minorities from across the globe: from Asia, Africa and Latin America, whereas white Americans moved to suburbs, such as Levittown. Conversely, today West Philadelphia is seeing gentrification fueled largely by the expansion of University City.
As an international student this photograph conveys my discomfort at the stark inequalities I see between the centuries of historic privilege in University City contrasted with the surrounding neighborhoods of minority residents. This image is part of my attempt to read my surroundings and understand them.
The people in the image appear to be doing ordinary, everyday things.
Yet from the vantage point of University City, they appear alien, exotic. Their juxtaposition with Morton’s crania from the Penn Museum also critiques the practice of street photography as a voyeuristic
and exploitative genre of photography drawing on notions of racism and the
notion of “the other” inherent in the city.
Crania Philadelphia
A revised version of an image currently a part of the exhibition, 'A View of One's Own' at the Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania.
This image weaves cranial samples housed in the Penn Museum that were used for eugenic measurements by Samuel Morton in the mid-1800s with contemporary street photographs taken in “minority neighborhoods” in West Philadelphia, showing the lasting effects of racial theories from the past on the way this city is structured, inhabited and experienced today.
The exhibition at the Penn Museum displays replicas of Samuel Morton’s books on his findings titled “Crania Americana” and “Crania Aegyptiaca” which claimed to demonstrate the inferiority of non-white races. Morton’s work preceded by only a few decades the first wave of African Americans migrating into West Philadelphia from southern states after emancipation. West Philadelphia has subsequently become a home to minorities from across the globe: from Asia, Africa and Latin America, whereas white Americans moved to suburbs, such as Levittown. Conversely, today West Philadelphia is seeing gentrification fueled largely by the expansion of University City.
As an international student this photograph conveys my discomfort at the stark inequalities I see between the centuries of historic privilege in University City contrasted with the surrounding neighborhoods of minority residents. This image is part of my attempt to read my surroundings and understand them.
The people in the image appear to be doing ordinary, everyday things.
Yet from the vantage point of University City, they appear alien, exotic. Their juxtaposition with Morton’s crania from the Penn Museum also critiques the practice of street photography as a voyeuristic
and exploitative genre of photography drawing on notions of racism and the
notion of “the other” inherent in the city.