In this session we approach for the first time what happens if the people who were traditionally in front of the camera, whom we called "others" so far, make their own images. We will approach photographic traditions around the world, discussing what the differences are with Western practices. We will also discuss the potential of these practices to become forms of resistance, on the one hand through the work of indigenous photographers, especially, and on the other through projects of repatriation of existing archival images to the communities where they were shot.
Through this session you will have a chance to learn:
• To recognise the cultural specificities of some examples of Indian and West African photographic practices. We will see how they are less indexical than common European practices and are ways for the subjects to manipulate their visible self.
• To reflect on the possible uses that the communities of origin can make of the images that were taken for different purposes, through the concept of repatriation. This includes identity uses and forms of visual sovereignty.
• To recognise different forms of photographic resistance - some more overt, some less so - that oppressed photographers have used as a way to counter dominant representations.
Critique exercise for today: The pairing of text with images can be problematic. Select one example in which the meaning of an image has been influenced in a decisive way by the accompanying text (a caption, or a title). There are plenty of examples in the news, on social media or on newspaper front pages, and sometimes they can classify as deception. Can you unveil the deception through other images, or other presentations of the same image? What was the aim of those who provided that text?
You’ll briefly present it to your breakout group during class (up to 5 mins.).
You’ll briefly present it to your breakout group during class (up to 5 mins.).
Key Reading:
• Buckley, Liam. 2000. 'Self and Accessory in Gambian Studio Photography'. Visual Anthropology Review, Sep., Vol. 16, No. 2: 71-91.
4.1 Other photographies
We look at ways of practising photography in non-Western contexts, alternative photographic traditions that can provide new interpretations and subvert the paradigm of the camera as a tool of empire. We start with India, with examples across social groups and times, to then jump to West Africa, first in Mali with the work of Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keita, and finally in the Gambia. We particularly focus on studio photography practices, highlighting the importance of backdrops and props in enhancing the self of their photographic subjects.
Readings:
• Appadurai, Arjun. 1997. “The Colonial Backdrop.” Afterimage 24(5) (March/April): 4–7.
• Buckley, Liam. 2013. 'Portrait Photography in a Postcolonial Age: How Beauty Tells the Truth.’ in Peffer, John, and Elisabeth Lynn Cameron, eds. Portraiture & Photography in Africa. 287-314. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• MacDougall, David. 1992. ‘Photo wallahs:’ An Encounter with Photography. Visual Anthropology Review, Sep., Vol. 8, No. 2: 96-100.
• Mustafa, Hudita Nura. ‘Portraits of Modernity: Fashioning Selves in Dakarois Popular Photography.’ Politique Africaine 2005/4 (n.100) DOI : 10.3917/polaf.100.0229
• Pinney, Christopher. 1997. 'Indian Eyes’ Chapter 2 in Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
• Sprague, Stephen. 1978. 'How I see the Yoruba See Themselves’. Studies in Visual Communication 5(1): 9-28.
Extra: The story of Philippe Koudjina, once a studio photographer in Niamey, Niger, could have been similar to that of Malick Sidibé or Seydou Keita. But later in his life he was a beggar and his work was forgotten. This documentary by Paul Cohen tells the story of the attempts to put his work on the international art circuit.
4.2 Repatriation and reappropriation
This video starts from the question, what would people do with the photographs of themselves or of their ancestors that outsiders took away? At first, we look at projects of repatriation, whereby archival collections are taken back to their communities of origin, and analyse their political implications. Our main example is the repatriation of Kainai images made by Beatrice Blackwood in 1925, in the frame of a project by anthropologists Brown and Peers. Later we consider examples of reappropriation, the integration of images made in a context of oppression and inequality in new work in which they are turned into ways of contesting that oppression. Examples include Leah King-Smith's project Patterns of Connection and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie's Damn series.
Readings:
• Bajorek, Jennifer. 2013. "Decolonizing the Archive. The View from West Africa”. Aperture 210: 66-69.
• Bell, Joshua A. 2003. "Looking to See: Reflections on Visual Repatriation in the Purari Delta, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea." in Museums and Source Communities: A Routledge Reader, edited by Peers, Laura and Brown, Alison, 111–121. London: Routledge Press.
• Bradley, J., P. Adgemis & L. Haralampou. 2014. '“Why Can't They Put Their Names?”: Colonial Photography, Repatriation and Social Memory', History and Anthropology, 25:1, 47-71, DOI: 10.1080/02757206.2013.813851
• Morton, C. and Oteyo, G. 2015. 'The Paro Manene Project: Exhibiting and Researching Photographic Histories in Western Kenya’ in The International Handbooks of Museum Studies 4: 311-335.
• Peers, L., Brown, A. and members of the Kainai Nation. 2006. Pictures Bring Us Messages/Sinaakssiiksi Aohtsimaahpihkookiyaawa: Photographs and Histories from the Kainai Nation, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Extra: Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie is also a scholar and academic. Have a look at her website which showcases more of her visual work and her writing.
4.3 Resistance
We are familiar with representation as a tool of oppression, but this time we are looking at representation as a form of resistance. Through the examples of Ernest Cole, Zig Jackson and Greg Semu we examine three different ways of using photographs to create alternative narratives that contest dominant representations.
Readings:
• hooks, bell. 1994. "In Our Glory: Photography and Black Life," in Art on My Mind: Visual Politics. New York: The New Press: 54-64.
• Pedri-Spade C. 2017. '“But they were never only the master’s tools”: the use of photography in de-colonial praxis.' AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 13(2):106-113. doi:10.1177/1177180117700796
Extra: Read this short piece by Greg Semu on how he understands his artistic practice in relationship to colonial narratives.
Some questions:
• How do you think the contexts of circulation of the work by some of the indigenous artists we named influence the resistant character of their photographs? Specifically, can their integration in the global art market weaken their political messages?
• Can you see counter-narrative and reappropriation as limits, as well as resources for indigenous artists?
Critique exercise for next time: Select a photograph or a series of photographs that are ambiguous - or in other words that were made to be open to multiple interpretations. Trace these possible interpretations and explore the role of ambiguity in the images: is it a resource, a pitfall, a danger, is it a conscious strategy by the author or an unintended consequence?
You’ll briefly present it to your breakout group during class (up to 5 mins.).
You’ll briefly present it to your breakout group during class (up to 5 mins.).