Portret van Aliha-Kama 1883 - 1884

Friedrich Carel Hisgen made this photogravure portrait of Aliha-Kama. This image is part of a series of portraits commissioned in the late 19th century. The images were gathered by European anthropologists eager to document and classify different human ‘types.’ Here we see Aliha-Kama in strict profile. Her hair is pulled back, away from her face, and her bare shoulders are exposed. The cold, even lighting and neutral background remove any sense of individuality from the subject. This was the age of scientific racism, an era of intense colonial expansion. European institutions actively sought to portray indigenous populations as primitive and backward. This, in turn, was used to justify imperial domination. Historians can use these images, along with other sources, to better understand the unequal power dynamics that shaped the modern world. It reminds us that the interpretation of art is always contingent on social and institutional contexts.