"There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment,” said Robert Frank, an influential figure in the evolution of photojournalism and documentary storytelling.
Renowned for the revolutionary bombshell he dropped in the late 50s, Frank’s images would ultimately detonate themselves into the subconscious of millions of people years after its initial publication.
The 1959 book ‘The Americans’ is an iconic view of contemporary American society highlighting the intersection of class and culture in a segregated existence.
Peter Schjeldahl from the New Yorker compared the work of Frank to a celestial visitation, stating: “It could seem as if Frank threw his Leica camera into the world and let it catch what it could, which happened, without fail, to be something exciting – fascination, pain, hilarity, disgust, longing… There was no limit to the variety of feelings, with the one uniform rule that they be bleedingly raw.”
In the late 20th century, the burgeoning pursuit of rawness found itself entangled in the masquerades of telling Africa’s ‘true story’ by showcasing the need for relief efforts in famine-stricken areas.
The horrific realities of HIV-Aids and civil war were sewn through these images. The images bombarded global media for years, consequently exacerbating stereotypes reflected from the lens of a western microscope. The scope of what makes a good documentary photograph in Africa would change forever.
In 1993, a 32-year-old South African photographer tagged along on a trip to Sudan with his colleague and companion Joao Silva, hoping to revive his career. This man was Kevin Carter.
Joao was invited by the United Nations (UN)-led consortium, Operation Lifeline Sudan. This invite was given in the hope of documenting the severity of famine and disease that had resulted from the second Sudanese civil war. The two travelled to Ayod, where a UN aid station was located, and eventually separated to take photographs in the area. As Kevin searched for something special, he fortuitously saw a boy on the verge of collapsing with his head pressed to the ground. Behind the child was a vulture perched on the ground, composed and anticipating the final breaths before securing its prey.
He took a picture that would be at the centre of media ethics classes and open up a discussion on how far we can go. Carter would ultimately receive a Pulitzer Prize for feature photography in 1993. A year later he comitted suicide.
After the desolation of the Bang Bang Club, which consisted of Joao Silva, Ken Ooosterbroek, Greg Marinovich and Kevin Carter, no African has won the award for photography. The legacy of the the Bang Bang Club and war photographers from the western hemisphere has forcibly conditioned the African landscape into the confines of an Afro-pessimistic rhetoric.
Senior Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) lecturer, Hugh Ellis’ PhD research focused on enabling community-based documentation for marginalised Namibians through photography. His thesis was titled ‘Owning the Image: Photography As A Means Of Empowerment In Contemporary Namibia’.
“My research involved getting people from unrepresented groups, such as the LGBTQ community and the township youth, to get involved with telling stories of their communities. We did this by paying particular attention to our teaching approach and recognising our privilege,” said Ellis.
“Photography in Africa coincided with colonialism.” During this era, images were used to exemplify the grandeur of empires and fed into European superiority complexes.
The history of photography in Africa reveals that glorifying Africans was never part of the plan.
In the past few years, the public has witnessed the popularisation of Afro-futurism and Afro-centric ideas in the media. Films such as ‘Black Panther’ have catapulted the presence of a counterculture that embraces African heritage and history that was overlooked especially in terms of fashion, visual arts, film and photography.
“Films like ‘Black Panther’ included traditions that the west tried to suppress, so it brought pride to heritage and gave people a reason to look at their history,” said Ellis.
The African continent has seen the stereotype tackled through exhibitions such as ‘LagosPhoto’ that is aimed at deconstructing Afro-pessimism. Some artists to check out include Eric Gyamfi from Ghana, Zanele Muholi from South Africa and Lakin Ogunbanwo from Nigeria, to name a few.
