This article investigates the visual regimes that shaped representations of Roma and Sinti in European photography from the late nineteenth century to the eve of the Second World War. It argues that photography played a decisive role in constructing ethnic and social hierarchies, while simultaneously offering limited but significant spaces for visual self-assertion. Drawing on interwar illustrated newspapers and magazines, the study situates the mass dissemination of stereotypical “Gypsy” imagery within the aesthetic and ideological transformations of photojournalism. Central to the analysis is the concept of “countergaze” – moments in which the photographed subjects disrupted, reinterpreted, or tactically negotiated the asymmetrical gaze of the camera. Through case studies of photographic reportages from different European countries, the article reveals that Roma and Sinti participants were not only passive objects but also active agents on the photographic stage. They staged performances, negotiated payments, and occasionally inverted the photographer’s authority by exaggerating, parodying, or even refusing the expected exoticized roles. These interventions, though constrained by economic and racial hierarchies, fractured the presumed one-way power of representation and exposed the photograph as a space of encounter and contestation. The study reconceptualizes Roma and Sinti photography as both a site of domination and of counter-visual agency. It concludes that the recognition of these “countergazes” not only complicates the historical archive of Roma and Sinti imagery but also points toward new ethical frameworks for re-reading and reclaiming visual histories of marginalized communities. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ .
ANTON HOLZER (Fri,) studied this question.