Photography in and out of Africa: Iterations with Difference

This book offers a range of perspectives on photography in Africa, bringing research on South African photography into conversation with work from several other places on the continent. The collection engages with the history of photography and its role in colonial regulation; with social documentation and self-representation; and with the place of portraits in the production of subjectivities, as well as contemporary and experimental photographic practices. Through analyses of photographs and archives, this book traces how photography both affirmed colonial worldviews, and disrupted and critiqued such forms of power. This book was published as a special issue of Social Dynamics.

This book offers a range of perspectives on photography in Africa, bringing research on South African photography into conversation with work from several other places on the continent, including Angola, the DRC, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. The collection engages with the history of photography and its role in colonial regulatory regimes; with social documentary photography and practices of self-representation; and with the place of portraits in the production of subjectivities, as well as contemporary and experimental photographic practices. Through detailed analyses of particular photographs and photographic archives, the chapters in this book trace how photographs have been used both to affirm colonial worldviews and to disrupt and critique such forms of power. This book was originally published as a special issue of Social Dynamics.