This paper aims at demonstrating how the material approach questions conventional hierarchies of photographic value, showing a way to deal with large quantities of photographs accumulated by scientific and scholarly disciplines in their archives.,For generations, these photographs have been considered as pure documentations of the objects represented in them (from artworks in museums to snowflakes under a microscope). Documentary photographs have been understood as mere working tools that can now be easily replaced by digital duplicates. Overcoming the long-established reduction of photographs to their visual content, the material approach shifts attention to masses of anonymous photographs that are often disregarded within institutions because they do not match museum systems of value based on uniqueness and authorship.,Focussing on photographic and archival practices in art history, this paper aims at demonstrating how conceptual and methodological tools such as “agency” and “materiality” can be made fruitful for theory and practice of photo archives able to explore their epistemological potential. A case study from the Photothek of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz allows an insight into historical and contemporary dynamics and practices of photographic archives.,With its interwoven strands of archival practice and academic research, the Photothek unboxes itself as a laboratory for the international, cross-disciplinary debate on the role and function of photographs and photographic archives in scholarship, suggesting a methodological path for the entire field. In conclusion, the paper shows that the first necessary step for a long-term conservation of photo archives is promoting research on the photographic objects.

中文翻译：

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照片作为文件/照片作为对象：照片档案，艺术史和材料方法

本文旨在说明材料方法如何对传统的摄影价值层次提出质疑，展示一种处理科学和学术学科在其档案中积累的大量照片的方法。几代人以来，这些照片一直被视为照片的纯粹文献。其中的物体（从博物馆的艺术品到显微镜下的雪花）。纪实照片被理解为仅仅是一种工作工具，现在可以很容易地用数字副本来代替。克服了照片长期以来减少其视觉内容的缺点，这种材料方法将注意力转移到了许多匿名照片上，这些照片通常在机构内部被忽视，因为它们与基于独特性和作者身份的博物馆价值体系不符。本文着重于艺术史中的摄影和档案实践，旨在说明如何使诸如“机构”和“物质性”之类的概念和方法学工具能够为能够探索其认识论潜力的照片档案馆提供理论和实践成果。来自弗洛伦茨艺术史摄影学院的Photothek的案例研究使人们能够洞悉摄影档案馆的历史和当代动态及实践。借助其档案实践和学术研究的交织点，Photothek成为国际，跨学科实验室-关于照片和照片档案在学术中的作用和功能的学科辩论，为整个领域提出了一条方法论途径。综上所述，