They Became What They Beheld

They Became What They Beheld is a 1967 book by photographer and media theorist John G. Collier Jr. that explores how photographic representation shapes both the subjects being photographed and the viewers who consume these images. The work examines the reflexive relationship between media technologies and human consciousness, arguing that the act of visual documentation fundamentally alters both the documented reality and the documenter's perception of that reality. The title suggests a cyborg-like transformation where humans become modified by their technological tools of perception and representation.

Visual Anthropology and Media Effects

Collier's work emerged from the field of visual anthropology and documentary photography, examining how camera technologies mediate human understanding of social reality. The book argues that photographic documentation is never neutral observation but always involves a transformative process where the technology of seeing changes both what is seen and who is doing the seeing. This perspective anticipates later cyborg anthropological insights about how technological tools become integrated into human cognitive and perceptual processes.

Media Ecology and Technological Consciousness

The phrase "they became what they beheld" reflects ideas that would later influence media ecology theorists like Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman, who argued that media technologies reshape human consciousness and social organization. Collier's work suggests that prolonged engagement with visual media technologies creates a feedback loop where humans begin to see themselves and their world through the technological framework of the camera, fundamentally altering their relationship to reality and representation.

Photographic Transformation

The book documents how the introduction of photography into various communities and contexts changes the social dynamics, self-perception, and cultural practices of the photographed subjects. Communities begin to modify their behavior, appearance, and social organization in response to being documented, while photographers find their own worldview shaped by the technological limitations and possibilities of their equipment. This mutual transformation illustrates an early form of cyborg relationship between humans and visual technologies.

Contemporary Relevance

"They Became What They Beheld" anticipates contemporary concerns about how digital photography, social media, and surveillance technologies reshape human behavior and self-perception. The proliferation of smartphone cameras, Instagram culture, and constant visual documentation has intensified the dynamics Collier identified, creating societies where individuals continuously modify their behavior in response to potential photographic documentation. The concept helps explain phenomena like "Instagram face," performative social media behavior, and the ways digital platforms reshape identity formation.

Cyborg Anthropological Implications

From a cyborg anthropological perspective, Collier's work illustrates how visual technologies create hybrid forms of human-machine perception where the boundaries between observer and observed, documenter and documented, become blurred. The camera functions as a prosthetic eye that extends human visual capabilities while simultaneously constraining perception within technological frameworks. This creates cyborg subjects whose understanding of themselves and their world becomes technologically mediated through photographic representation.

Surveillance and Social Control

The book's insights also relate to contemporary discussions of surveillance capitalism and the ways that constant visual documentation and analysis shape human behavior. The transformation Collier describes—where people become what they behold—takes on new significance in contexts where algorithmic systems analyze visual data to predict and influence human behavior. The reflexive relationship between seeing and being seen becomes a mechanism of social control and behavioral modification.

Further Reading

• Visual Anthropology
• Media Ecology
• Marshall McLuhan