Portraiture and Photography in Africa

471 Pages·2013·43.14 MB·English

by  John Peffer and Elisabeth L. Cameron (eds.)

&
P O R T R A I T U R E P H O T O G R A P H Y I N
AFRICA
AFRICAN EXPRESSIVE CULTURES
Patrick McNaughton, editor
Associate editors
Catherine M. Cole
Barbara G. Hoffman
Eileen Julien
Kassim Koné
D. A. Masolo
Elisha Renne
Zoë Strother
&
P O R T R A I T U R E P H O T O G R A P H Y I N
AFRICA
EDITED BY
John Peffer and
Elisabeth L. Cameron
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
IBNloDoImAiNngAt oUnN aIVndE RInSdITiaYn PaRpEoSlisS
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in South Korea
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing Library of Congress Cataloging-in-
Herman B Wells Library 350 Publication Data
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA Portraiture and photography in Africa
/ edited by John Peffer and Elisabeth L.
iupress.indiana.edu Cameron.
pages cm. — (African expressive
Telephone orders 800-842-6796 cultures)
Fax orders 812-855-7931 Some essays originally presented at the
conference “Portrait Photography in African
© 2013 by Indiana University Press Worlds” (February 3–4, 2006), University of
California, Santa Cruz.
All rights reserved Includes bibliographical references and
index.
No part of this book may be reproduced ISBN 978-0-253-00860-2 (pbk.) — ISBN
or utilized in any form or by any means, 978-0-253-00872-5 (e-book) 1. Africans—
electronic or mechanical, including Portraits. 2. Portrait photography—Social
photocopying and recording, or by any aspects—Africa. I. Peffer, John, editor of
information storage and retrieval system, compilation. II. Cameron, Elisabeth Lynn,
without permission in writing from the editor of compilation.
publisher. The Association of American TR681.A33P67 2013
University Presses’ Resolution on 770.96—dc23
Permissions constitutes the only exception 2012047537
to this prohibition.
1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13
With gratitude to
Patricia and Rowland Rebele and Raoul Birnbaum
CONTENTS
Foreword \ Raoul Birnbaum ix Acknowledgments xv
Introduction:The Study of Photographic Portraiture in Africa
JOHN PEFFER 1
PART ONE. EXCHANGE
1 Portrait Photography: A Visual Currency in the Atlantic Visualscape
JÜRG SCHNEIDER 35
2 Lutterodt Family Studios and the Changing Face of Early Portrait
Photographs from the Gold Coast
ERIN HANEY 67
3 Yoruba Studio Photographers in Francophone West Africa
ÉRIKA NIMIS 102
4 The Fieldworker and the Portrait: The Social Relations of Photography
ELISABETH L. CAMERON 141
PART TWO. SOCIAL LIVES
5 “A Photograph Steals the Soul”: The History of an Idea
Z. S. STROTHER 177
6 The Past in the Present: Photographic Portraiture and the Evocation of Multiple Histories in
the Bamum Kingdom of Cameroon
CHRISTRAUD M. GEARY 213
7 Mombasa on Display: Photography and the Formation of an Urban
Public, from the 1940s Onward
ISOLDE BRIELMAIER 253
8 Portrait Photography in a Postcolonial Age: How Beauty Tells the Truth
LIAM BUCKLEY 287
PART THREE. TRADITIONS
9 Likeness or Not: Musings on Portraiture in Canonical African Art and Its
Implications for African Portrait Photography
JEAN BORGATTI 315
10 Àkó-graphy: Ò.wò. Portraits
ROWLAND ABÍÓ. DÚN 341
11 Visual Griots: Identity, Aesthetics, and the Social Roles of Portrait
Photographers in Mali
CANDACE M. KELLER 363
12 The Intermediality of Portraiture in Northern Côte d’Ivoire
TILL FÖRSTER 407
Contributors 439
Index 441
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F O R E W O R D
RAOUL BIRNBAUM
Perhaps counterintuitively, this book has its origins in a six-year project on
Chinese biographies/autobiographies and portraits/self-portraits that I led while
serving as Patricia and Rowland Rebele Endowed Chair in the History of Art
and Visual Culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz. It seemed to me
that many of the issues I encountered as I engaged with Chinese photograph-
ic traditions might be constructively pursued with African materials as well, or
set against those traditions to create a productive tension. To this end, Elisabeth
Cameron, a valued department colleague, generously agreed to co-organize a
conference on portrait photography in Africa. We were fortunate also that John
Peffer was able to spend a year with us teaching at UCSC; Elisabeth and John
were responsible for selecting and inviting the many Africanists who joined us
in Santa Cruz for the conference in February 2006. Although we had expected
to divide the volume’s editorial work among the three of us, and I also planned to
write a more formal research paper based on my conference presentation, illness
required that I step back from the scene. I am glad now to be able to return with
this brief foreword. Elisabeth and John deserve extraordinary credit, as well as my
very considerable appreciation, for doing far more work than reasonably antici-
pated in order to see the volume through to publication. It also is a great pleasure
to recognize with gratitude that the long-term project, including this segment,
was made possible by the kind generosity of Patricia and Rowland Rebele, who
created the endowed chair in our department.
A few words on portraiture and portrait photography in China may provide a
sense of some of the issues animating the organization of the conference, which
was the starting point for this volume.
Until recently, the vast bulk of portraiture in China was created specifically
for memorial purposes. Many of these portrait paintings were created by local
ix