Conjuring Empire : photography and place during the early years of French colonialism in Indochina (1845–1879)

This thesis analyses photography’s ties with the French colonial project in Mainland Southeast Asia from the earliest photographs of Vietnam (1845) to the end of naval rule in French Cochinchina (1879). In Indochina, as in most regions undergoing colonization, photography was increasingly mobilized in support of the French imperial project, to collect intelligence on the landscape and populations, inform decision makers on the progress of expansion and exploitation, contribute to the advancement of colonial sciences, promote prospective action, legitimize structures of domination or boost colonialist sentiment among the metropolitan public. Acknowledging the performative nature of photographic representation and the importance of historical and sociopolitical contexts, the thesis disentangles existing ties between photographs of Vietnamese and Cambodian lands and the colonial project in four case studies illustrating key moments in the pre- and early colonial periods: the creation and circulation of the first photographs of Việt Nam (1845–53), uses of photography during the Cochinchina Campaign (1858–60), the pivotal role of the Paris Universal Exposition for the dissemination of photographs of Angkor (1866–67) and uses of the camera in Cambodia during the final years of French naval rule (1870s). Throughout these four chapters, the thesis addresses how photography assisted concrete military, scientific and commercial efforts and examines the processes by which ideologies of power and otherness often infused these images. Considering that visual appropriation often facilitated more tangible forms of control, it proposes a reevaluation of photography’s contribution to French rule in Indochina before 1880.