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Teach with Collections: Marcelo Brodsky, The undershirt (La camiseta)
Both a personal and a collective memory, Brodsky's photograph shows an archival photograph of his brother, Fernando Brodsky, who was among the many students kidnapped, tortured, and killed during the Dirty War, a military dictatorship in Argentina from 1976 to 1983. The small photograph of Fernando featured in this work was smuggled out of a clandestine detention camp by Victor Basterra, a survivor of the camp, whose hand is shown holding the archival image.
Conversation prompts: 1. Do you have any particular associations with the medium of black-and-white photography that you might bring to your reading of this image? 2. What is the effect of placing a photograph within a photograph? 3. How can we read this work as social commentary? (How did the work shift in meaning as it moved from archival record to personal memento to work of art)?
Conversation prompts: 1. Do you have any particular associations with the medium of black-and-white photography that you might bring to your reading of this image? 2. What is the effect of placing a photograph within a photograph? 3. How can we read this work as social commentary? (How did the work shift in meaning as it moved from archival record to personal memento to work of art)?
