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2019 CLPA NEWS #03 IN THIS ISSUE Feature: Uses of photography Reflections on language Member interview: John Fleetwood Camera phones were the main tool for documentation during the recent revolution revolution during the recent documentation for the main tool phones were Camera security roaming the national pick-up photographs a photographer in Sudan. Here a hole in the curtain. through Jaafar © Alaa looking protesters, the area for CONTRIBUTORS Cairo, Egypt Contemporary Image Collective (CIC) Dakar, Senegal DECEMBER 2019 National School of Khartoum, Sudan CONTRIBUTORS: CLPA members Arts (ENA) The Other Vision (TOV) EDITORS: John Fleetwood & Amy Daniels, Photo: ([email protected]) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Center for Photography in Ethiopia (CPE) Mindelo, Cabo Verde Associação AOJE Co-founded and funded by the Goethe-Institut South Africa Kigali, Rwanda CLPA News is a newsletter made up from Bamako, Mali contributions of the CLPA members. The Kwanda Art Foundation Yamarou-Photo Editors hold no responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the provided content. EXTERNAL CONTRIBUTOR: Serubiri Moses TRANSLATOR: Patricia Yumba (House of Nzinga) PROOF READER: Sibongile Shope Johannesburg, South Africa DESIGN: Karien van der Westhuizen Photo: GUEST EDITOR: Market Photo Workshop (MPW) Ala Kheir, The Other Vision CLPA NEWS 2019#3 2 FEATURE: USES OF PHOTOGRAPHY Writer and curator Serubiri Moses engages the question of visual literacy in relation to gender representation and post-slavery for Uses of photography students and apprentices. In 2009, I received my training in photography through mailed books, assignments and exams in correspondence with the New York Institute of Photography where I undertook the diploma in professional Photography photography. I happened to be largely self-taught up until that point and went about the whole business of digital photography through By Serubiri Moses indirect mentorship from the online community of Flickr. Khartoum based photographer Ala Kheir founded the Sudanese Photographers Group (later he founded The Other Vision as well) in a similar way on Facebook. The members of that group such as Dia Khalil all met on the social media site and proceeded to organize meetings in real life where they exchanged techniques and tools in the development of their own photographic practice. Flickr, on the other hand, functioned as a photo-sharing site in which you could join different groups, as a form of social networking and indirect learning. You could be an active member of various photography communities ranging from amateur to professional that existed online. This site, and the networking I did there, fundamentally became a platform to trouble notions of visual literacy, race, and the uses of photography. One of the ways that I did this was by keenly following portrait photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya (born to Ugandan parents) on Flickr. In 2008, his images seemed to break many “taboos” such as the open display of nudity, homosexuality, queerness, and sex work. Engaging with Sepuya’s work made sense in a community that asked similar questions about visual education: could images help us connect to others? Could images address and declaim stereotypes of masculinity? Through Sepuya’s photo diary, the comment threads became a space to examine questions of race, the erotic, and the very function of the photo studio as a space for the formation of a queer community. ©Jansen van However, were these utopian ideas for the virtual world of the internet, Staden. From the or could they exist in real life in the East African context? series Microlight. CLPA NEWS 2019#3 3 ©Jansen van Staden. From the series Microlight. (Pa's camera, the crash, and the surviving sensor.) FEATURE: USES OF PHOTOGRAPHY (CONTINUED) I was surprised to learn a few years later that such a link between photography with that of scientific imperialism. It is only recently queer communal formation and photography did exist in real life that the prominent photographic magazine National Geographic in Kampala, Uganda when I encountered Keith King, a Ugandan admitted its role in this imperialism during the late 19th and visual artist who produced and styled photo shoots with young 20th centuries. LGBTI+ colleagues and activated a digital community through What are the uses of photography? The uses of photography are publishing his images on Tumblr. numerous but how might we think about these uses in relation When I recall my own learning as a photography student, the to training? This question is interesting for me, considering both history of photography was not conveyed in my training which feminist and postcolonial critique. The representation of women was strictly technical and scientific. The moral implications of in places of work, and in politics through their right to vote, and photographic science were made clear to me outside of these the right to be modern, coincides with the representation of exams and assignments through reading Susan Sontag’s book blacks in post-slavery. Postcolonial critique too has strived to On Photography, alongside books on the history of photography, understand the black subject as a human being. Photography and the famous essay on the topic by Walter Benjamin. When and its history which follow Eurocentric humanism are yet to I worked in advertising it became clear that my desire to fully incorporate these critiques. While photography students challenge the scientific rigor of photography was a major are taught about aperture and annotating light readings, can "While students problem to the practice. In that business, a photo was either they learn about the representation of ethnicity and women? blurry or “in focus”, and rarely did it diverge from that principle. While students learn tools for Photoshop, can they also learn Did photographers have any other responsibility to their subject about the 1929 Women’s War in Nigeria? Can these students and learn tools for outside of the accuracy of scientific exposure? I later saw many apprentices see photographs of the anti-colonial movements examples in this regard, where the ethical implications of around the globe, in order to understand photography’s own Photoshop in digital scientific imaging of black women had been the subject, such implication in the system of colonization? as in Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu’s collages; namely Primary photography, can Syphilitic Ulcers of the Cervix 2005). Serubiri Moses is an independent writer and curator. His essays are I was trained to think that photography was science and a published in Chimurenga (South Africa), Frieze (U.K.), and C& – they also learn about, business. How to use the gray card for studio photography; how Contemporary And (Germany). His research and curatorial projects include: ‘Life mu City’ (2014), a series of public programs with the to read light with a light meter, etc. All that was useful to me, Goethe Centre Kampala, and the biennial contemporary art festival, but I still needed the perspective of Susan Sontag and Walter and see images of, KLA ART - UNMAPPED (2014) among others. He has produced Benjamin to show me what photography did to the bodies of essays on African artists and curators for the online magazine C& – women and black subjects, including many non-white and non- Contemporary And. He is currently on the curatorial team for the 10th the 1929 Women’s heteronormative subjects. The developments in photography Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, curated by Gabi Ngcobo. He with the expansion of zoom lens technology coincided with the has served as faculty – and is alumnus – of the Asiko International Art War in Nigeria?" growth of sports photography, ethnographic science, biological School, and was awarded the 2015 Stadtschreiber residency at the and forensic photography, revealed the interwoven history of Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies. CLPA NEWS 2019#3 5 REFLECTIONS ON LANGUAGE “ Language was and still is a potent vehicle for cultural Reflections and political domination.” on language Ibrahim Franz Fanon, political philosopher A lot has been injected in the a more technical term, as opposed to the ideological concept of How do languages and colonial language zones/links Lusophone), language creates a bond and a comfort zone that (Francophone, Anglophone, Lusophone) within the continent in terms of culture, the really helps in terms of education, but it also acts as a constraint continent, interlink or un-link photography practice, new and imposed languages has for access to education, the visibility of artists and other gender and education on the continent? opportunities outside of that region. Languages between different countries of the African continent formed new zones that might have the power to create shared/unshared cultures and What is the state of local languages? What role do they identities. Sharing these identities can unite photography differ from pre-colonization, which play in gender and photography education? practice and education in different countries and create easily affected arts and culture as well. Although Portuguese is the official language in Cape Verde relatable and practical ways of speaking to a wider range of (albeit being in effect a foreign language, used mainly as an audiences beyond borders. administrative tool), the community and daily local language ASSOCIAÇÃO AOJE What is the state of local languages? What role do they is in fact Creole. Being able to teach photography in both play in gender and photography education? How does one’s spoken language affect one’s perception languages allows me to expand many concepts and draw There are more than 80 languages spoken in Ethiopia, although of the world, photography and gender? different relations that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. the predominant ones are only two. Amharic, being the official Different languages emphasize different feelings, operations or language and having its own alphabet, has the advantage of concerns through the words in its vocabulary (there are many CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY IN ETHIOPIA (CPE) being very well grounded in history, literature and any discourse words without any direct translation into other languages).

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