Afrocentric Photo-Chronicles (1)
It is Black History Month this February and as a visual content provider, we love to take a dive into the origins of our visual representation. History has it that photography in Africa started on the shores of the Gold Coast in West Africa around 1880. With the continent’s past with colonial rule, it is no wonder that details of the history of Africa’s visual representation also ties in with the era of Transatlantic slave trade.
In certain articles written on the topic, while photography was introduced in Africa shortly after its invention in 1839, it was limited to entrepreneurs or expatriates who could afford the cameras and equipment, those with access to chemicals for the process. The world's earliest successful photograph dates back to 1826, taken by French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. Today, African photography, defined as an area where African artists have long expressed their individuality as far back as the 1840's, is still a very established and dynamic form of artistic manifestation. Today, African photographers have followed the paths of some pioneers who paved the way for Africa and Africans to be visually represented in their own truth.
The continent however experienced the rise of photography in different times. For example, in West Africa where photography got exposed early, photographers in countries like Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Mali etc took to showing the rich diversity of the culture in the region but also document the happenings of the time. Then photography spread to the other regions such as the south in the 19th Century through the British and Dutch colonists and also to the East. It is notable however, that the photography space was heavily male dominated with little or no female representation at the time. In the follow up article, we take a look at how women entered the space of visual representation.
We take a look at some of these amazing human beings who gave us the opportunity to take a sneak peak into origins and past lives of our continent (Article reference/ source is linked at the end).
James Barnor, 1929, Ghana
Popularly known as Uncle James, he established a photographic studio called "Forever Young" in Jamestown, Accra in 1947. He is known to have set up the first color processing facilities in Ghana in the 1970's. As a photojournalist for the Daily Graphic and Drum Magazine, he covered the daily lives of people both in Ghana and later in London where he recorded the advent of popular culture surrounding the Beatles and other icons. Barnor is known to have captured intimate moments of luminaries and key political figures, including Ghana’s first prime minister, Kwame Nkrumah as he pushed for pan-African unityToday, clocking the age of 93, he lives in London still practicing his craft and lecturing, sharing his knowledge and experiences with the younger generation. James Barnor is considered a pioneer of Ghanaian photography
Adama Kouyate
According to the article written of him in Contemporary African Art, was born in 1928 in a French Sudanese village of what was then named Bougouni (now Mali). After apprenticeships with 2 established photographers, Bakaru Doumbia and the Frenchman Pierre Garnier, 'the white master of West African photography', he established his own studio in 1949. Traveling frequently, other studios were set up in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast before finally settling down in Segou, Mali. In these studios he managed to capture the emergence of Africa's middle class. Often using painted, draped backdrops or just a few key selected props, he has given us a touching and elegant view of society in all its fashion and cultural status. He is reported to have died in 2020 at the age of 92 and his studio photography has since come to the attention of many and is widely recognized as a holding place in the development of photography on the African continent. His predominantly monochromatic images represented a distant cultural moment in time ie. Mali's liberation from French colonial rule.
Sanle Sory, 1943, Burkina Faso
Basically, everyone could be a star in Volta Studio. Photographer Ibrahima Sanle Sory was born in 1943 in Bobo-Dioulasso, Volta (now known as Burkina Faso). He began his career in Bobo-Dioulasso in 1960 opening the Volta Photo Studio where he documented the fast evolution of this cultural and economic capital city for over 2 decades following Burkina Faso's independence from the French. He often painted his own backgrounds for his studio shot giving a unique quality to his work. Rich people, poor people, the religious, the artistic, the creative. Being relatively wealthy he could afford his own transport and traveled around the city to various locations doing weddings, attending musical events embracing and filming the vibrant youth scenes, showing this exciting world where freedom of expression reigned and youths embraced these opportunities.
Malik Sadibe, Mali, 1935-2016
Known as "The Eye of Bamako" Malik Sadibe captured the youth culture of the 60s and 70s in the capital of Mali, Bamako. Sadibe took mesmerizing photos of his community members during the decade before independence and after.His subjects were known to be more engaging and had a more active role in constructing the image of themselves that they would like portrayed. His work was not known much to the West until the early 90's. Andre Magnin, the French collector was instrumental in making sure the world knew about the talent and skill of this extraordinary photographer. Still practicing until his death, he became the first African artist to be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in 2007.
Samuel Fosso, 1962, Cameroon
Samuel fled Nigeria at a very young age to live in the Central African Republic. His interest in self-portraiture led him to open a studio in Bangui at the age of 13 where he took portraits, passport and wedding photos by day and experimented at night, taking photos of himself in various costumes set against cloth backgrounds to send back to his mother in Nigeria. His expressive black and white self-portraits from the 1970's make reference to popular West African culture. Later his images began to become very direct, sometimes provocative and increasingly experimental, exploring topics such as sexuality, gender and African self-representation, examining his identity through costume, impersonation and performance. In 2008 he created an arresting and rigorous series of photographs he called ' African Spirits', re-enacting famous portraits of African leaders such as Emperor Haile Selassie, Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba or prominent cultural figures like Leopold Sedar Senghor. He extended his subjects to include diaspora icons such as Muhammed Ali and Malcolm X. In 2018 he won the ICP award for his series' Black Pope '', with the intent to challenge the Catholic veneration of whiteness concerning the Pope.
Ernest Cole, 1940-1990, South Africa
Ernest Cole was one of South Africa's first black photo-journalists. His powerful images revealed to the world, with both courage and compassion, life under the apartheid system. He started his career working as a darkroom assistant at the epicentral Drum Magazine where he was exposed to the cultural icons of the time and the leaders of the resistance / anti-apartheid movement in SA. In his work he looked at the critical issues that affected black people. Arrested in 1966 for subversive action, he was exiled and left the country of his birth for Sweden and then the USA. He produced a book called "House of Bondage" with 185 disturbing and enlightening images of the apartheid regime and the effects of the draconian and separatist laws on society. He saw every aspect of this oppression with a keen and searching eye and a passionate heart. Cole lived in destitution for much of his life in America, living on the streets and tragically succumbing to cancer at the age of 49. His work was rescued by a Swedish photographer and given to the Hasselblad Institution who developed an Ernest Cole Trust and continues to exhibit this important and substantial collection.
This article is an excerpt, pulled from the original article 'African Photography' by Contemporary Art.