Modern colonial rule relied not only on the military and economic power of conquering nations, but also on domination over forms of cultural representation. The period of Europe’s political expansion, starting in the late fifteenth century, witnessed the development of significant new cultural technologies. From the printing press to photography, film, and sound recording, technical innovations enabled novel ways of documenting and disseminating knowledge about Europe’s encounters with the non-Western world.
relevant colonial gaze discourse:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/gaze-colonial