ABSTRACT
Albums created since the invention of photography and the expansion of mass print media also grant individuals a space for directing the visualization of their own identity in a manner that may depart from the stereotypes of dominant visual culture. These album-based archives are born in the gaps between dominant narratives. Domestic albums have historically been regarded as exhibiting conformity rather than diversity. This association relates to their production in the home, which has traditionally been gendered as feminine in comparison to the public sphere's gendering as masculine. Modern albums originated in nineteenth-century European and North American middle- and upper-class contexts, which were characterized by strictly reinforced gender roles aligning with divisions of public and private space. By the 1910s, the United States company's brilliant marketing campaigns persuaded consumers of the importance of keeping family photographic albums to document every milestone and preserve memories.
