American representations of Mexico in the early 1900s : stereographs portraying the other’s modernity and backwardness

Sammanfattning: The thesis presents the late 19th-century observers as a part of a highly visualized society able to connect with distant places through a very popular visual medium. The stereoscope provided a three-dimensional experience intended for entertainment and education. The thesis focuses on how American stereographic companies portrayed Mexico. It aims is to examine 25 selected stereographs through a visual analysis where images and text display a social dichotomy of Modernity and backwardness during Porfirian Mexico. The theoretical framework draws on Jonathan Crary’s work to understand the shift to modern visual culture in the 19th-century, and Edward Said’s Orientalism to comprehend how Western countries display the non-Western. The images portray contrasting inequalities or frame modernity. The stereographs were produced from an American perspective which served to construct stereotyped images of Mexico in the American visual culture.