Pose for the photo. The conventional images of surveyors and cartographers in the middle of the 20th century

Abstract

Throughout the 20th century, photography was a technique used by topographers and cartographers as a tool for surveying and representing the terrain. Since the implementation of the phototheodolite, these technicians were aware of the importance of photography to remember the shape of the terrain in a cabinet and to make their maps. However, there was another way of using photography: when the technicians themselves starred in it. In these cases they posed with an eloquent gesture, demonstrating the difficulties of the work and simulating the practice of measuring and drawing. This simulation was carried out surrounded by instruments and typically topographical and cartographic elements.

In this work we intend to carry out a genealogy of photographic practice not as part of the survey but as a simulacrum for the "historical testimony" as Burke puts it. Through the rigorous analysis of the photographs we can account for a tradition or some social conventions of work practice that, even when they had been replaced with new instruments and methods, continued to guide the iconography of professional status. In the case of topographers it is possible to trace a certain iconography that is maintained throughout the history of representation and it is possible to find continuities in that representation, the images in the cabinet we can conclude that professionals and their technical teams were photographed to leave traces of his action.