mark romanek, photography as inspiration

recently purchased the dvd “the work of director mark romanek”. his work is interesting because he uses photography as a jumping off point for many of his music videos.

for the video “got it til it’s gone” by janet jackson romanek begins with the photography of urban africa in the 1950s-70s, as typified by the images in DRUM magazine and in the work of portrait photographers like malick sidibe. he has succeeded pretty well in creating an africa from that time and place, something i have never seen outside the work of raul peck. he did cast some expat kenyans as extras (including a couple of my friends) which gives the video that much more authenticity.

but beyond its surface beauty, there is a more powerful message that is conveyed by the video. the photography of that time in africa depicts the joy, optimism, sophistication and humanity on the continent as africa underwent a transition to urbanism, decolonization and greater freedom. by dramatizing that time and place where africans were those things things, this piece of art challenges the culture (especially black culture) to aspire to more beyond a narrowly defined self-image.

in the dvd commentary for the video, romanek says was making a point against the bling-addiction of black american music videos then and now. but to me this message has a broader meaning that is also relevant to other black people everywhere, especially in africa where 40 years of poverty, war and disease seem to have killed off the vitality that makes the old images from long ago still seem alive. optimism that things will get better, is just as important as good governance and aid; art can play an inspirational part in that by depicting an ideal state, whether past or future.

afrobeat and ethiojazz

in west africa, fela kuti went to school in london, came to the states and heard funk, returned to nigeria, mixed highlife, juju and funk and created afrobeat.

in east africa mulatu astatke went to school in london, came to the states and heard jazz, funk, latin music, returned to ethiopia and mixed jazz, funk and ethiopian pentatonic scales to create ethiojazz. both men are giants of modern western based music on the continent, although astatke is little known outside ethiopia, except to fans of the ethiopiques series. mulatu astatke is getting a little recognition (ny times, reg. req’d) via the jim jarmusch film broken flowers, that features his music prominently in the film. very cool.

joe conzo, hip hop photography

ny times piece on joe conzo a (then) young photographer who shot mainly around the cold crush brothers whom he knew. (ny times link: registration req’d)

previously mentioned here.

history of central african photography, two views

two views of the history of photography in central africa from two perspectives: how africans themselves used photography and how the westerners who photographed africa used their images.

Photographers of Kinshasa: the history of photographers in congo and their evolving role from from sorcerers to accomplices to documentarians.

“Once considered a mysterious representation of a parallel world, portraits became images that could be controlled. Once a conducting medium between two worlds, the portrait was now a narcissistic object capable of distorting reality. It was a fragile portrayal of a reinvented everyday life that made it possible to immortalize an ideal self-image. Once a frozen spirit, the subject was now a sublimated icon. For anything was permitted in studios. Thanks to his camera, the photographer was both a privileged secret observer of intimate moments and an active participant who would suggest a prop or pose – a well-meaning accomplice who created that perfect image all his clients wished for.”

from In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa 1885 – 1960: smithsonian exhibit on historical photography from central africa centering around the work of casimir zagourski
“Throughout this period photography was used to describe and classify peoples under colonial domination and to record information about African architecture and art, dress and adornment, body decoration, ceremonies and rituals. Today, many of these photographs–even considering the circumstances under which they were taken–have become valuable historical documents of African ways of life. However, they are equally important as primary evidence of commonly held Western beliefs about Africans. Photographers tended to focus on themes that often reinforced erroneous notions of an “exotic” or “savage” Africa, visually evoking stereotypes about Africans. Some of these stereotypes–which could be traced to the earliest Western encounters with Africans along the coast in the 16th century–were celebratory; others were derogatory, racist and deeply painful. Seen from our contemporary perspective, many of the perceptions conveyed by the imagery were “out of focus”: viciously wrong and permanently damaging.

Besides documenting Africans and African life, much of the photographic activity in central Africa served to popularize the colonial venture. The building of the colonial infrastructure and successful economic exploitation of ivory, rubber and later minerals were common themes. Africans, whom the colonials saw as culturally inferior, were to be Christianized and educated in what has become known as the “civilizing mission.” Missionary activities and educational efforts are portrayed in the imagery, which celebrated colonial achievement. Many of the photographs exhibited here are aesthetically and technically compelling, which is one of the reasons they were widely reproduced. They formed an image world that focused on narrow, repetitive themes. These pictures left an indelible mark on the Western imagination, creating representations of central Africa that have had tremendous staying power.”

mohamed amin legacy

short film portfolio pieces representing work of students from the mohamed amin foundation broadcast and training school in lavington, nairobi (achtung: quicktime .avi files).

featurette on ziff (zanzibar international film festival)
heavy metal: jua kali karai (basin) makers at work set to an industrial beat
my nairobi: manufacturing a soccer ball, githurai stlylee

kenyan photographers

“kenyan” and “photographer” are two words that do not find themselves next to each other too often. they came together famously in the case of mohamed amin, but i am aware of few other cases. a cursory web search inspired by a link forwarded to me for felix masi’s site is not much more instructive, something i would like to attribute to a small web footprint and poor metatagging, not just that they don’t exist:

slyvia njenga: commercial photographer
willis okech: nature/wildlife photographer
felix masi: photojournalist
robert carr-hartley: art photographer

will keep looking.

andrew dosunmu watch

picked up a new (to me) magazine called clam; andrew dosunmu is a primary image contributor with a number of fashion spreads throughout the magazine. there is a photo essay on cuba by another of my fav photographers marc baptiste. there is also a huge feature “kampala now” about the youth kulcha in uganda’s capital.

i am trying to find a photographic voice that at once reflects my roots while rooted in the world i live in today which is definitely not african. that is why i am fascinated by the work of dosunmu and magazines like clam (and trace and other transcultural publications) that seem to be navigating the same territory.

samuel fosso: self portraitist

samuel fosso: central african republic based nigerian photographer famous for his self portraits.

“Fosso talks about his work with striking simplicity. It may be this clarity that stops him from being too interested in the critics and the attention he now receives. “When I’m taking a self-portrait, I’m not looking to find out more about Samuel Fosso. I’m searching first of all to see my beauty. That’s how I started.

“When I look at myself in the mirror, I am not looking to find out if what I see is an Ibo, a Central African or even a black American. The only thing I can see is Samuel Fosso, who is trying to make himself as handsome as possible before taking a self-portrait.”

from guardian article discussing a 2002 program on fosso.

imperial reckoning

i just finished reading “Imperial Reckoning” by caroline elkins about the brutality that the british visited on the kikuyu (mostly) in response to the mau mau threat. the book paints the suffering of the kikuyu in the emergency (from 1952 to 1960) as “unspeakable”. many of the interviewees in elkins’ book talk of their inability to effectively use words to describe how horrible life was during that time. forced labor, random beatings, humiliation, torture, rape, summary executions, starvation, disease, family separation were all facts of daily life to the 1 million + people who were forced off their land or rounded up from nairobi and the rift valley and forced to live in overcrowded “reserves”.

i have recently been very curious about how the history of the mau mau has been written; attributing their negative image to the fact that the british were devastatingly effective in painted them as primitive savages in the press of the early/mid 1950’s. but the truth is more nuanced than that:

1. during the emergency one was either a mau mau, a mau mau suspect or a british loyalist. in the wake of independence, many of those who were loyalists inherited power and access to resources and were the real beneficiaries of wiyathi (independence). it would have been very difficult for former homeguards, now in positions of leadership, to reveal what they did during the emergency. the best strategy was to bury the memory of mau mau with the hope that they wouldn’t have to answer for the beatings, torture, rape, murder and land grabbing that they were party to during that time.

1a. related: kenyatta was no mau mau radical and was even shunned by his fellow detainees at lokitaung for his moderate views on how kenya could shake the colonial yoke. he was is no position to lionize the mau mau legacy; he was not one of them. he owed his hero status among kenyans partly to the british who so vigorously (and wrongly) painted him as the mastermind of the mau mau insurgency.

2. even within the kikuyu community, the mau mau phenomenon was very divisive. those who had embraced christianity couldn’t join mau mau as part of it involved invoking the traditional god ngai and participating in traditional rituals that they had already distanced themselves from culturally. there was also a class dimension; the mau mau oath attracted most those without land who felt this was their way to redress this problem (land is economic power in kikuyu culture). also, during that time the mau mau offered two choices; join us, or die as an enemy our cause. so, in my family’s case, i now understand the context within which both of my grandfathers were murdered; my paternal grandfather most likely for his christian faith (he was a lay preacher).

3. ithaka na wiyathi (land and freedom). that was the rallying cry of the mau mau. kenyatta and the former loyalists who formed the first kenyan government amassed huge tracts of former settler land after independence. very few, if any, former mau mau vets had the money or connections to buy this land. thus kenyatta, et al needed to “forget” the mau mau struggle. ostensibly it was to unite the country (”we all fought for independence”), and to keep settlers from bolting from the country (and undermining a fragile new economy). but it also allowed the government to shut down any talk of land reform, using the same administrative and law enforcement structure that the british had used on the mau mau. admittedly kenya may have avoided what is happening in zimbabwe today, but when i think about how much of the country is owned by a handful of people, and see an overcrowded nairobi full of young unemployed people from the countryside, i wonder if kenya is not still sitting on the same powder keg that exploded in 1952.

this book has whetted my appetite to understand more about kenya and its history. Imperial Reckoning has only scratched the surface of this, not so much because of any deficiency on the author’s part, but that so little is available anywhere. our parents’ generation talked about the emergency, reserves, detention, johnies. many homes have that painting of kenyatta being led away to jail on oct. 20th 1952. but that is about it. this is a critical part of our heritage, one i fear will go to the graves with the many survivors who are now growing old. where is our kenyan ken burns when we need one to bring this history to life and show how much more we can understand and be proud of our national heritage?

the tree of life: guns into art

the tree of life: ofshoot of project in mozambique to decommission millions of weapons left over over from the war. local artists use the discarded weapons to create art pieces. featured at africa 05 held earlier this year in london.