"Can I steal it?" Affective involvement with images of alerce trees in Chilean Patagonia

Abstract

The paper is inspired by a photographic record of the culture surrounding the alerce (Fitzroya cupressoides), a long-lived tree endemic to the Valdivian rainforest, whose wood is used as a building material for houses in the border region between Chilean and Argentine Patagonia. The photographs were exhibited at several locations in southern Chile and Argentina, including universities, rural schools, and community festivals, among others. Paradoxically, the audiences seemed more interested in purchasing the photographs than in the actual history they depicted. We attribute this to the evocative power of the images of old alerce houses, ancient forests, and tools—without human presence—which triggered memories of an archetypal place tied to peasant roots and childhood. These memories were expressed through sudden emotional reactions, accompanied by a sense of nostalgia for the loss of communal bonds. These reactions resemble the ambivalent nature of the alerce tree itself, which emerges throughout the region's history: its wood is both a valuable commodity and a use value central to practices of reciprocity. Drawing on the history of alerce culture and the audience's reactions to the photographic exhibitions, this paper aims to reflect on the possibilities of communicating subaltern stories through photography.