The New African Photography Exhibition

South Africa Mon 30-08-2010

The New African Photography Exhibition
By Caroline Kaminju | AfricanColours.com

Africa is often associated with poverty and war. ‘How to Write about Africa’, a satirical article written by Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina and published in Granta magazine (2005), describes the kind of stereotypic language often used to describe the African social landscape.

Leap frog(a bit of the other) Grand Matron Army by Ayana Jackson

Leap Frog (a bit of the other) Grand Matron Army by Ayana Jackson | Photo by Caroline Kaminju

"Always use the word 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title. Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masaai or Zulu or Dogon dress."

Imagery that reflects what Wainaina describes maybe termed as ‘Poverty Pornography’. It is a term used to describe the way black Africans are represented visually. It serves to reinforce the position people in a seemingly 'better' position are; giving them the satisfaction that they are in a ‘better’ position.

It is a term that emerged as a reaction to Danny Boyles’ film Slumdog Millionaire (2009). Yet the meaning of poverty can mean different things to different people. Who then is to blame for projecting Africa in such negative light?

At a recent discussion titled Poverty Pornography: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Photographic Practice in Africa hosted at Gallery Momo in Johannesburg South Africa, curators Thembinkosi Goniwe, Kwezi Gule, Gaby Ngcobo and academic Dr. Achile Mbembe and Ayana Vellissia Jackson (moderator) discussed these issues.

Artist Ayana Jackson | Photo by Caroline Kaminju

Some of the questions that they tackled included what kind of stories are photographers telling and why, are photographers going where the money is, to what degree do photographers monitor how their images are used among others?

Gule felt that some photographers were ‘driven by survival’ to produce such kind of pictures to meet the huge demand for it. Gule, a chief curator of the Hector Peterson Memorial, also revealed that some 'gallery spaces host exhibitions rather than produce them' which leads to replications of exhibitions.

According to Dr Mbembe, such images create a stereotypical view of Africa and in the end, people waste time and energy trying to get rid of this view to the point of forgetting what they are saying in the first place. ‘We are under the rule of clichés in both visual and performance art. We are obsessed with difference’.

Taking photographers to task, Goniwe said that the problem starts with how the black body is framed. ‘There seems to be an absence of black love and suffering and pain dominate most visuals’.

However, the works by photographers Ayana Vellissia Jackson (USA), Patricia Driscoll (SA), Andrew Tshabangu (SA), Siemon Allen (SA/USA), Sammy Baloji (DRC) and George Mahashe (SA) group exhibition titled New African Photography at the same venue told a different story.

Their works showed the kind of imagery produced when photographers tell their own stories as opposed to having others doing it for them. This influences the way the pictures are framed as well as the choice of subject matter and context.

Artist George Mahashe engages the audience during one of his exhibits | Photo by Caroline Kaminju

South African photographer George Mahashe’s black and white portraits although simple, were quite layered. He revealed that his project came about as a result of curiosity and a fascination of his origins. All his pictures bordered on culture and featured women who have touched his life in one way or another like his godmother and grandmother. Mahashe says that what defines a person is not restricted to genetics only, even economy plays a role.

Andrew Tshabangu’s images of men’s hostels in the townships of Soweto and Alexandra sought to show how space could define the people who live in it. He hopes to extend his project to Kibera slums in Nairobi Kenya. Patricia Driscoll’s seascape images could be mistaken for paintings.

The time centered images illustrate the meaning of photography (painting with light) which she achieved by exposing the film for more than three hours! Her choice of subject matter came naturally since she grew up in Durban. ‘The movement of the sea fascinates me and most of these images come from psychoanalysis’ she said.

Jackson’s work titled Leap Frog (a bit of the other) Grand Matron Army ‘presents the female body in conversation with archetype, childsplay, allegory and myth. It is a series of nine self-portraits of the artist crouching like a frog and dressed up in different attires to represent how the role of black women in America has evolved over time.

From the postcolonial house servants, the Harlem Renaissance right down to the transgender, hip-hop to the current space whereby ‘women can navigate space in equal terms’. Her work ‘deconstructs the black female body and interrogates class in the black community’.

The pose is ‘seductive sexual and submissive’ but at the same time it conveys a feeling of ‘power’ because one can jump higher from such a position. The Grand Matron occupied her own space and was larger in proportion to the other pictures. She represents the ‘first generation of women from servitude who later became educated as teachers and missionaries’. This generation gave rise to the black middle class in America. Her pictures give insight of the organizational structure within the woman space as it has developed over time.

She started the project while on a six-week residency in Paris and later completed it at Gallery Momo in Johannesburg. Initially meant to be a video, she decided to make them a series of pictures, which she manipulated to achieve the desired result.

Jackson studied sociology at the Spelman College (USA) in 1999 and took an interest in the history of slave trade and the impact of African descendants in South American countries such as Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua Columbia and Venezuela.

Her investigation led to the production of a body of work titled African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth, also published as a catalogue. She developed her aesthetic language at the University of Arts Berlin (Germany) where she learned photography and darkroom techniques. Known for overexposing her images and shooting against the light to give the pictures an archaic look Jackson also frames her subjects closely to maintain their ‘pride and dignity’.

Clearly then, African artists can and should play a role in telling their own stories since it will go a long way in ridding the clichéd view of the continent.

Posted By: Diana Achieng

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