接觸攝影影像：論金恩《藥河鎮》中的照片與照相機

Photographic Images in Contact: Photographs and the Bodily Camera in Thomas King’s Medicine River

本文探討金恩《藥河鎮》有關照片的流通、保存、消費、翻拍以及攝影者轉型照相機等觀看攝影影像之外的「以文敘圖」，除了追究北美原住民與殖民攝影符號系統的關係，也試圖鋪陳原住民以接觸攝影協商其當代存有的可能途徑。論文第一部份討論攝影殖民主義形成視覺權力的運作過程，兼論觀看與被觀看影像之外，接觸影像是生產攝影意義的另一形式。其次，透過閱讀《藥河鎮》敘述者接觸照片的各種攝影活動，闡釋原住民攝影之意義，不在於其內容指涉或影像形式，而是照片做為物件聯繫過去與未來的前後脈絡。最後，本文聚焦攝影者轉型身體照相機的接觸／模仿共生機制，進一步分析當代原住民摹仿能力，並以《藥河鎮》是金恩回應殖民攝影的社會實踐作結。

This essay explores the ekphrasis of photographic images in Thomas King's Medicine River, examining the photograph as object in relation to the semiotic representation of the native peoples and cultures of the Americas. While it critiques the semiotic reproduction of photographic images of native peoples, the argument suggests that the presentational forms of the photographs of Indians, established by a cultural environment of making meaning that a visual approach to photographic images cannot accomplish alone, make up for the act of viewing when images are contacted in the process of production, circulation, and usage. As such, photographic images in contact can be incorporated into a form of bodily camera which stands a chance of engaging with mimetic faculty to the native and thus allows contemporary natives to material connections with the tribal past, present, and future.