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Domestic Photo-Archives of Coastal Andhra
Subject area: Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities · Area of research: Objects
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I12-1718636
Abstract
This article examines two wooden-metal photo-etched panels preserved in a private family archive in coastal Andhra Pradesh, India. Combining object biography, material culture theory and oral-history interpretation, it analyses how small domestic artefacts become carriers of kinship, ritual memory and vernacular histories of visual reproduction. The panels consist of wooden supports faced with metal plates and fixed by brass nails; they retain fading ancestral images associated with priestly service, education and narratives of ritual power. The study also considers a black-and-white print taken from the photo-etching plate by Chaganti Durga Prasad and its later transformation into digital artwork. Instead of treating these materials only as damaged photographs, the study reads their thickness, surfaces, fastenings, material ageing, custody, technical mediation and narrated afterlives. It argues that the panels function as photo-objects: hybrid artefacts that mediate between image and support, domestic possession and public heritage, inanimate matter and animated memory. The paper contributes to South Asian visual culture studies by foregrounding family-held archives as significant sites of material knowledge and cultural sustainability.
Keywords
Archive, Material Culture, Photo-Etching, South Asian Visual Culture, Wooden-Metal Panels
How to cite this paper
@article{1718636,
author = {Peddinti Srikavya, Chaganti Durga Prasad},
title = {Domestic Photo-Archives of Coastal Andhra},
journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
year = {2026},
volume = {9},
number = {12},
pages = {386-390},
issn = {2456-8880},
url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1718636.pdf},
abstract = {This article examines two wooden-metal photo-etched panels preserved in a private family archive in coastal Andhra Pradesh, India. Combining object biography, material culture theory and oral-history interpretation, it analyses how small domestic artefacts become carriers of kinship, ritual memory and vernacular histories of visual reproduction. The panels consist of wooden supports faced with metal plates and fixed by brass nails; they retain fading ancestral images associated with priestly service, education and narratives of ritual power. The study also considers a black-and-white print taken from the photo-etching plate by Chaganti Durga Prasad and its later transformation into digital artwork. Instead of treating these materials only as damaged photographs, the study reads their thickness, surfaces, fastenings, material ageing, custody, technical mediation and narrated afterlives. It argues that the panels function as photo-objects: hybrid artefacts that mediate between image and support, domestic possession and public heritage, inanimate matter and animated memory. The paper contributes to South Asian visual culture studies by foregrounding family-held archives as significant sites of material knowledge and cultural sustainability.},
keywords = {Archive, Material Culture, Photo-Etching, South Asian Visual Culture, Wooden-Metal Panels},
month = {June},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I12-1718636}
}