Ines Schaber's Project Examines Aby Warburg's 1895 Hopi Photographs and Ethical Viewing

Ines Schaber, a German artist, launched her project Notes on Archives in 2004 to explore the intersections of photographic archives and colonial histories. Central to this endeavor is the Unnamed Series (2008–09), developed in collaboration with Stefan Pente, which addresses the contentious release of images by Aby Warburg from his 1895 encounter with the Hopi people. Although Warburg opposed their publication, these images were first made public in 1939 and subsequently reprinted in 1988, 1995, 1998, and 2018, despite objections from the Hopi. The Hopi consider these images a breach of sacred knowledge. Schaber's work, showcased at Camera Austria in 2018, features an audio component that interrogates the ethics of image circulation and includes critiques from Hopi representatives, discussing possible actions such as reframing or repatriating the images.