{"id":176417732,"date":"2013-05-02T23:17:28","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T04:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/?p=176417732"},"modified":"2013-05-02T23:17:28","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T04:17:28","slug":"photography-al-jazeeras-new-african-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/2013\/05\/02\/photography-al-jazeeras-new-african-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"PHOTOGRAPHY: Al Jazeera\u2019s New African Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-meta\" style=\"margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: adelle; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: #ffffff;\">\n<h1 style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: 300; font-size: 36px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #111111; line-height: 38px;\">Al Jazeera\u2019s New African Photography<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\" id=\"thing-with-videos\" style=\"margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: adelle; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden; width: 730px; background-color: #ffffff;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\"><a style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.okayafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/al-jazeera-artscape-african-photography.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-31306\" style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: none; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\" alt=\"Al Jazeera Artscape Emeka Okereke\" src=\"http:\/\/www.okayafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/al-jazeera-artscape-african-photography-620x465.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"465\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">*\u201dBe The Me\u201d by Emeka Okereke<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The latest documentary series from Al Jazeera English,\u00a0<em style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">Artscape: A New African Photography<\/em>\u00a0is a 6 part investigation into how photographers on the continent are confronting longstanding caricatures and misrepresentation of Africa and Africans by what we now prefer to call the global north. In the past\u00a0Al Jazeera has invited politicians and recognisable writers from the continent onto their show\u00a0<em style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">Rewriting Africa<\/em>\u00a0to share their impressions of Africa, its future, and the hurdles that lie ahead on the unpaved footpath to being an \u201ceconomic superpower.\u201d In this new documentary series we meet 6 photographers from 5 countries on a quest to reclaim Africa from over 100 years of \u201cphotographic misrepresentation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KiBuiUHfNGU\" height=\"360\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The first episode (above) opens with a declaration: \u201ca photograph is a window and not a view\u201d by a horn-rim-Tom Ford-tortoiseshell-sunglass wearing 33 year-old founder of<a style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #6c2dc7; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"http:\/\/invisible-borders.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">Invisible Borders<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<strong>Emeka Okereke<\/strong>. Accompanied by a first time novelist, a Nollywood actor, a filmmaker, and a novice photographer the debut episode which can be viewed above, and on Al Jazeera\u2019s\u00a0<a style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #6c2dc7; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/programmes\/artscape\/2013\/04\/2013421133119858694.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">website<\/span><\/a>, is a 25 minute road trip from Africa\u2019s most populated country to\u00a0<strong>Mobutu<\/strong>\u2019s Kinshasa, DRC. According to our guide Emeka, Invisible Borders \u201cis a movement to give artists a space to define Africa for themselves.\u201d The political borders that we rely on to separate one country from another and one region from another are rendered arbitrary and irrelevant- since it is rainy season across West Africa. Invisible Borders is an imaginary erasure of the 1884-5\u00a0<em style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">Berlin Conference<\/em>\u2019s imposed territorial boundaries that consequently distorted Africa as a \u201cgeographically integrated\u201d landscape yet left its people \u201c\u2026rivalling as Anglophone, Lusophone, and Francophone\u201d according to Rhodes University academic\u00a0<strong>Nana Bonsu-Amoako\u00a0<\/strong>in her paper titled \u201cRepresentations of Africa\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5ydseuny9vs\" height=\"360\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The series meanders twice through Nigeria then stretches to Kenya, Congo, South Africa and Mozambique. The second episode (above) premiered today April 29th and reflects on Kenya\u2019s 2007 disputed election results which some agencies estimated had between 800 and 1500 casualties, mostly opposing supporters of\u00a0<strong>Raila Odinga<\/strong>\u00a0and then president<strong>Kibaki<\/strong>. Global news agencies characterised the violence in simple tribal terms, ignoring the complexities that characterise a society as diverse and as competitive as Kenya. Fashion photographer\u00a0<strong>Barbara Minishi<\/strong>\u00a0zooms-in not on the cause of violence but on the cloak that binds her country women; their shared lives and stories, emphasising unity and by extension national identity through her\u00a0<em style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">The\u00a0Red Dress\u00a0<\/em>project. What about episode three, four, five and six? Does your point of view affect what you accept as normal? How do pictures influence your reality of the world?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #6c2dc7; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.okayafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/african-photography-Baudouin-Mouanda.jpeg\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-31309\" style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: none; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\" alt=\"The White Dress project African Photography Baudouin Mouanda\" src=\"http:\/\/www.okayafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/african-photography-Baudouin-Mouanda-620x435.jpeg\" width=\"620\" height=\"435\" \/><\/span><\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">*Photograph by\u00a0Baudouin Mouanda<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Four decades ago gross misrepresentation and unfair international news flow led to a UNESCO debate chaired by Nobel Peace Prize laureate\u00a0<strong>Sean MacBride<\/strong>. The term \u201cNew World Information and Communication Order\u201d was coined then. In \u201cRepresentations of Africa,\u201d Amoako says the debate centred on \u201cobjectivity in trans-national flow of information, inequality in information and fairness in news distribution.\u201d As you would guess, delegates from the global south- poor Africa and its backward cousins Asia and Latin America, were the most irate demanding the overthrow of the distorted world information order, but how did they plan to change Africa\u2019s image?\u00a0<strong>James Michira<\/strong>\u2019s 2001 study \u201cAfrica in the Western Media\u201d provides a crude 7 point summary of the North\u2019s image of Africa as it has been since slavery:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Africa is a homogenous entity<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Africa \u201cThe Dark Continent\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThe Wild\/Jungle\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Hunger, Femine and Starvation<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Endemic Violence, Conflict and Civil War<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Political Instability, Flagrant Corruption and Incompetent Leadership<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">HIV\/Aids<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Photographers\u00a0<strong>Baudouin Mouanda<\/strong>\u00a0(Congo) and\u00a0<strong>Geroge Ogodi<\/strong>\u00a0(Nigeria) explore beauty in unlikely places. In South Africa we meet another photojournalist-turned-entrepreneur\u00a0<strong>Neo Ntsoma<\/strong>, who weighs the impact of both Apartheid and Freedom. The series ends in Mozambique with\u00a0<strong>Mario Macilau<\/strong>, whose sympathetic gaze into the lives of homeless people who live on Maputo\u2019s rubbish dumps resonates with his own experience with homelessness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Amoako suggests we need balance in a continent portrayed by its extremes. She says that balance can be achieved with\u00a0African journalist, editors and production managers in the newsroom, the media, civil society, and citizens of Africa.\u00a0If we use Amoako\u2019s suggestion as a yardstick to measure the shortcomings of Al Jazeera\u2019s project \u2018taking control of how Africa\u2019s is portrayed photographically,\u2019 what do we get? For instance all participating artists are drawn from the same race yet we share this continent with other races too. Secondly, the omission of Northern Africa as if somehow it has been spared the colonial stereotypes, that there exists no political, cultural, and geographic ties with the \u2018Real Africa\u2019- sub-Saharan Africa? Third, the production team behind the documentary, 4 directors, a producer and a commissioning editor are they African- does it matter? The truth is Africa is diverse and not just black. The problem of representation particularly for our generation is not to cling to post-colonial narratives that are limited to finding fault only with mis\/under-representation of blacks instead we should aim to generate, in partnership with our friends, an honest view of Africa and Africans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 26px;\">&gt;via:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.okayafrica.com\/2013\/04\/29\/african-photography-al-jazeera-artscape\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.okayafrica.com\/2013\/04\/29\/african-photography-al-jazeera-artscape\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Al Jazeera\u2019s New African Photography *\u201dBe The Me\u201d by Emeka Okereke The latest documentary series from Al Jazeera English,\u00a0Artscape: A New African Photography\u00a0is a 6 part investigation into how photographers on the continent are confronting longstanding caricatures and misrepresentation of Africa and Africans by what we now prefer to call the global north. In the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[6],"tags":[4,12,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176417732"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176417732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176417732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176417759,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176417732\/revisions\/176417759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176417732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176417732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176417732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}