Der Wert der Archivfotografie in der Sinnaushandlung über die Vergangenheit – Eine semiotische Analyse eines Bildes von Amnesty International über die ›Verschwundenen‹

Abstract

This article is part of the scholarship on archive photography as a valuable semiotic resource for the negotiation of meaning that a social collective makes of its past. Within this framework, this article proposes a semiotic analysis of one of the photographic pieces that are part of Amnesty International Uruguay’s campaign on the ›detenidos-desaparecidos‹ (2012). The analysis suggests that photographs belonging to the private archives of the desaparecidos and their families have a significant role in the process of collective healing, as they contribute to the creation of the collective actor of the ›desaparecidos‹ in social discourse. As visual resources framed in a certain context of meaning, archival photographs are worthy of a semiotic study.