Archives can be rich sources of information, yet they are also very often built within the violent processes of empire-building, setting the stage for how knowledge about colonised places are constructed, disrupted, and how their histories are understood. Archives often tell us more about power and the kinds of knowledge that were important to imperial powers than the people and places disrupted by empire. This necessitates careful consideration of the archive itself, and not simply the information it contains. The relationship between the visual aspects of the archive and the ways that we come to know about colonised sites is the focus of this paper. Focusing on photos of rural Puerto Rico taken after The Depression (circa 1941–1942), this paper builds an understanding of archives as sites that can be transformed into conceptual or imaginary space that exists outside of the original purposes of the archives. This space is reliant on the willingness of those who encounter archives to read beyond what they are presented with. This in turn allows for careful reading of the traces and possibilities inside archives that subvert their seemingly totalising narrative.

中文翻译：

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破坏档案：帝国、榨取主义和波多黎各农村农业照片中的视觉痕迹，1941-1942

档案可以是丰富的信息来源，但它们也常常是在帝国建设的暴力过程中建立起来的，为如何构建、破坏有关殖民地的知识以及如何理解其历史奠定了基础。档案常常告诉我们更多关于权力和对帝国权力重要的知识，而不是被帝国扰乱的人民和地方。这就需要仔细考虑档案本身，而不仅仅是它包含的信息。档案的视觉效果与我们了解殖民遗址的方式之间的关系是本文的重点。重点关注大萧条（约 1941-1942 年）后拍摄的波多黎各乡村照片，本文建立了对档案馆的理解，档案馆可以转变为存在于档案馆原始用途之外的概念或想象空间。这个空间取决于那些接触档案的人是否愿意阅读超出他们所看到的内容。这反过来又允许仔细阅读档案中的痕迹和可能性，从而颠覆其看似全面的叙述。