Ambivalent: Photography and Visibility in African History (New African Histories)

Going beyond photography as an isolated medium to engage larger questions and interlocking forms of expression and historical analysis, Ambivalent gathers a new generation of scholars based on the continent to offer an expansive frame for thinking about questions of photography and visibility in Africa. The volume presents African relationships with photography—and with visibility more generally—in ways that engage and disrupt the easy categories and genres that have characterized the field to date. Contributors pose new questions concerning the instability of the identity photograph in South Africa; ethnographic photographs as potential history; humanitarian discourse from the perspective of photographic survivors of atrocity photojournalism; the nuanced passage from studio to screen in postcolonial digital portraiture; and the burgeoning visual activism in West Africa. As the contributors show, photography is itself a historical subject: it involves arrangement, financing, posture, positioning, and other kinds of work that are otherwise invisible. By moving us outside the frame of the photograph itself, by refusing to accept the photograph as the last word, this book makes photography an engaging and important subject of historical investigation. Ambivalent's contributors bring photography into conversation with orality, travel writing, ritual, psychoanalysis, and politics, with new approaches to questions of race, time, and postcolonial and decolonial histories. Contributors: George Emeka Agbo, Isabelle de Rezende, Jung Ran Forte, Ingrid Masondo, Phindi Mnyaka, Okechukwu Nwafor, Vilho Shigwedha, Napandulwe Shiweda, Drew Thompson

Going beyond photography as an isolated medium to engage largerquestions and interlocking forms of expression and historicalanalysis, Ambivalent gathers a new generation of scholarsbased on the continent to offer an expansive frame for thinkingabout questions of photography and visibility in Africa. The volumepresents African relationships with photography-and with visibilitymore generally-in ways that engage and disrupt the easy categoriesand genres that have characterized the field to date. Contributorspose new questions concerning the instability of the identityphotograph in South Africa; ethnographic photographs as potentialhistory; humanitarian discourse from the perspective ofphotographic survivors of atrocity photojournalism; the nuancedpassage from studio to screen in postcolonial digital portraiture;and the burgeoning visual activism in West Africa.

As the contributors show, photography is itself a historicalsubject: it involves arrangement, financing, posture, positioning,and other kinds of work that are otherwise invisible. By moving usoutside the frame of the photograph itself, by refusing to acceptthe photograph as the last word, this book makes photography anengaging and important subject of historical investigation.Ambivalent's contributors bring photography intoconversation with orality, travel writing, ritual, psychoanalysis,and politics, with new approaches to questions of race, time, andpostcolonial and decolonial histories.

Contributors: George Emeka Agbo, Isabelle deRezende, Jung Ran Forte, Ingrid Masondo, Phindi Mnyaka, OkechukwuNwafor, Vilho Shigwedha, Napandulwe Shiweda, Drew Thompson

Going beyond photography as an isolated medium to engage larger questions and interlocking forms of expression and historical analysis, Ambivalent gathers a new generation of scholars based on the continent to offer an expansive frame for thinking about questions of photography and visibility in Africa. The volume presents African relationships with photographyand with visibility more generallyin ways that engage and disrupt the easy categories and genres that have characterized the field to date. Contributors pose new questions concerning the instability of the identity photograph in South Africa; ethnographic photographs as potential history; humanitarian discourse from the perspective of photographic survivors of atrocity photojournalism; the nuanced passage from studio to screen in postcolonial digital portraiture; and the burgeoning visual activism in West Africa. As the contributors show, photography is itself a historical it involves arrangement, financing, posture, positioning, and other kinds of work that are otherwise invisible. By moving us outside the frame of the photograph itself, by refusing to accept the photograph as the last word, this book makes photography an engaging and important subject of historical investigation. Ambivalent s contributors bring photography into conversation with orality, travel writing, ritual, psychoanalysis, and politics, with new approaches to questions of race, time, and postcolonial and decolonial histories. George Emeka Agbo, Isabelle de Rezende, Jung Ran Forte, Ingrid Masondo, Phindi Mnyaka, Okechukwu Nwafor, Vilho Shigwedha, Napandulwe Shiweda, Drew Thompson "Going beyond photography as an isolated medium to engage larger questions and interlocking forms of expression and historical analysis, Ambivalent gathers a new generation of scholars based on the continent to offer an expansive frame for thinking about questions of photography and visibility in Africa. The volume presents African relationships with photography-and with visibility more generally-in ways that engage and disrupt the easy categories and genres that have characterized the field to date. Authors pose new questions concerning the instability of the identity photograph in South Africa; ethnographic photographs as potential history; humanitarian discourse from the perspective of photographic survivors of atrocity photojournalism; the nuanced passage from studio to screen in postcolonial digital portraiture; and the burgeoning visual activism in West Africa. As the contributors show, photography is itself a historical subject: it involves arrangement, financing, posture, positioning, and other kinds of work that are otherwise invisible. By moving us outside the frame of the photograph itself, by refusing to accept the photograph as the last word, this book makes photography into an engaging and important subject of historical investigation. Ambivalent's contributors bring photography into conversation with orality, travel writing, ritual, psychoanalysis, and politics, with new approaches to questions of race, time, and postcolonial and decolonial histories"-- Provided by publisher