«Developing» ethnicity in family photo albums of Buryats

The article is devoted to the visual discourse of Buryat ethnicity in private photo collections of Buryats. The authors find out that the visual images of ethnicity and the principles of the family tree in the creation of family photo albums were transformed. Iconic codes demonstrate the hybridity and fluidity of the ethnic tradition, its performative nature in modern social conditions. Materials for the article were collected during field expeditions in the Irkutsk Region (2012-2013) and in the Republic of Buryatia (2019-2020). The research methods were visual analysis of photographs and narrative biographical interview. The research methodology was based on the works of R. Barth and D. Harper. The phenomenon of developing ethnicity in photographs is expressed in a visible and invisible three-layer structure: in iconic codes - ethnic costume, ethnic dwelling, ethnic rituals; in the hierarchical arrangement of pictures at album pages; and in biographical stories of the collection owners about photography. As a result, photographic materials from private photo archives are fragmentary for visualizing of Buryat ethnicity, but due to their typicality, they are structured as a representation of changes in Buryat corporeality. «Developing» ethnicity for the sake of presenting oneself to others existed until the 1950s. It goes into the dualism of the Buryat and Soviet features. The disappeared ethnic identity in photo albums by the end of the 1980s was undergoing a performative change from the 2010s. «Developing» ethnicity is expressed in the interest of the Buryats to the details of their ethnic presentation.