Book contents
- Decolonizing African Knowledge
- African Identities: Past and Present
- Decolonizing African Knowledge
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Language and Orthography
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II History, Fictions, and Factions
- Part III Visual Cultures
- 9 Sculpture as Archive
- 10 Textiles as Texts
- 11 Canvas and the Archiving of Ethnic Reality
- 12 Yorùbá Hair Art and the Agency of Women
- 13 Photography and Ethnography
- Part IV Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
13 - Photography and Ethnography
from Part III - Visual Cultures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 June 2022
- Decolonizing African Knowledge
- African Identities: Past and Present
- Decolonizing African Knowledge
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Language and Orthography
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II History, Fictions, and Factions
- Part III Visual Cultures
- 9 Sculpture as Archive
- 10 Textiles as Texts
- 11 Canvas and the Archiving of Ethnic Reality
- 12 Yorùbá Hair Art and the Agency of Women
- 13 Photography and Ethnography
- Part IV Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter is centered on the scientific conceptualization of the term “photography” and its relationship with the photographer, the photographed, and the viewer, including that which is existent between the photographer and the camera, especially the chemistry between both lenses — biological and technological — the synergy and the differences. Photographs, according to the chapter, are representations of the reality of a particular timeframe. By answering certain expedient questions, the author engages his collections (with pictorial evidence) to illustrate the nature of photography vis-à-vis other factors that contribute to the shot, such as the camera and how it is received by the people. Moreover, the chapter views photography as a “social contract” between the photographer and the photographed, and “construction” as the process of taking the shot and reproducing the image. As for the interpretation of the picture by the viewer, it is believed that the pictures themselves dictate how they are to be interpreted or engaged, although this is also highly dependent on the viewer’s understanding. In addition, the chapter explores the effect of photography at its dawn and what its exclusion of African peculiarity, color-wise, meant.
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- Decolonizing African KnowledgeAutoethnography and African Epistemologies, pp. 414 - 450Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022