Revue de presse #25 – Avril 2015

Avril et son lot de tragédies : Garissa, la Méditerranée fossoyeuse de vies “clandestines”, les violences xénophobes qui ont éclaté en Afrique du Sud. À l’heure des réseaux sociaux et du flot d’images qui nous engloutit, en véritable tsunami d’horreurs, peut-on encore représenter la “douleur des autres” avec pudeur ?

Garissa massacre and the dissemination of graphic photos, par Abdi Latif Dahir, Sahan Journal, le 10/04/15 ;

“Today, those same conversations are amplified online, and the decision to publish and share is no longer in newsrooms staffed with editors who adhere to a strict code of journalistic conduct. On the contrary, the decisions are no longer just personal but also universal – intensified by the hundreds of millions of people using social media.”

Non volevo vedere quella foto, par Igiaba Scego, Internazionale, le 5/04/15 ;

“Ha ragione Seble Woldeghiorghis, madre eritrea e padre etiope, italianissima e africanissima, che lavora al comune di Milano e su Facebook scrive: “Non voglio condividere le foto dei cadaveri degli studenti di Garissa. In questa maniera non si onorano i morti, ma si fa da cassa di risonanza a chi li ha ridotti così. Impariamo invece a parlare del continente africano, un pezzo di mondo e di persone che meritano più attenzione e approfondimento. Non solo oggi”.”

Photographer of Missing Nigerian Girls’ Belongings: Our Attention Was Not Enough, par Glenna Gordon, Time-LightBox, le 14/04/15 ;

“The photos were published and shared widely. Many people wrote to me that they were glad to “see” the girls for the first time. I was glad to cover the story and to help people in Nigeria and around the world connect to the missing girls. 

But now, one year later, when the girls are still missing, I question the value of my efforts and all those who viewed and shared the photos.

If a photographer’s only job is to take the photos, then I succeeded. If my job is to create change, I have failed. The photos may have comforted some but ultimately did little to change anything.”

Encore combien de drames de l’immigration clandestine ?, France Culture, le 15/04/15 ;

“On nous a parlé de tant de naufrages, de tant de disparitions et de noyades que tout cela nous semble presque normal, se désole à son tour son confrère de LA VANGUARDIA. C’est comme si, dit-il, à force d’avoir vu tant d’images de migrants serrés sur des embarcations de fortune, transis de froid, le regard figé par la peur, nous étions devenus insensibles à leurs souffrances.”

Fake photos misrepresent xenophobic violence, par Phumlani Pikoli, Eyewitness News, le 17/04/15 ;

“At a time of high tensions in South Africa, images have been surfacing that have nothing to do with the current xenophobic violence plaguing several cities.”

ACTUALITÉ DES PHOTOGRAPHES

“Former la relève aux arts visuels, option photographie. Quelques initiatives venues de Lagos”, par Erika Nimis, Africultures, le 29/04/15 ;

“Mars 2015, Lagos retient son souffle dans l’attente des élections présidentielles. Un certain vent d’optimisme souffle sur la ” capitale de l’Afrique ” (1) où chacun cherche son rêve, animé par un profond désir de changement. Et les bonnes volontés, pour certaines riches d’expériences à l’extérieur, se retroussent les manches pour passer le flambeau (2) aux jeunes générations sur les épaules desquelles repose l’avenir d’un pays devenu statistiquement la première puissance économique continentale.
À la faveur de cette envolée économique consolidée par une certaine stabilité politique, plusieurs photographes et acteurs culturels locaux, reconnus sur la scène internationale, ont décidé ces dernières années de prendre en charge l’éducation artistique de la relève, car s’il y a beaucoup d’argent dans ce pays, aucune politique ne soutient les arts et leur pratique. Au royaume du ” Do it yourself “, le salut vient avant tout des initiatives privées (3). Retour sur quelques-unes d’entre elles, déjà bien implantées ou en voie de l’être, observées dans toute leur diversité, des pionnières aux plus alternatives.”

Osh Gallery, Yaba, Lagos, Mars 2015 © Erika Nimis

A complex self-portrait of Africa, par Philip B. Richardson, Lens – The New York Times, le 28/04/15 ;

“Asked to reflect on his body of work and to contemplate the future, Mr. Akinleye approached the answer with the same earnestness with which he captures his subjects. He wishes to remain committed to social change and to provide a lens through which the Western world can view Africans not just as people waiting in lines, but also as citizens steadfast in meeting the challenges that face their continent with strength and beauty.”

Akintunde Akinyele: How I won World Photo Contest, par Damiete Braide, The Sun, le 10/04/15 ;

Zanele Muholi & Lerato Dumse at the University of Brighton (12/03/15), par Tessa Lewin, Africa in Words, le 10/04/15 ;

“When you look at her photographs you are reminded not just of the lack of photographs documenting the lives of black lesbians and trans* people, but also of the lack of photographs of ordinary, everyday African intimacy. I saw a photograph on facebook recently (on a friend’s wall) of a black middle class Zimbabwean couple in a hospital room, just after the birth of their son. It was a technically unremarkable snapshot, but seeing it really shocked me because I realized how few of these types of photographs we see – particularly in the UK.”

9 Young Photographers with Uncompromising Vision, par Jessica Hunkin, Between 10 and 5, le 9/04/15 ;

A place of dreams, hope and resilience, par Jorrit R Dijkstra, This is Africa, le 10/04/15 ;

“(Felix) Masi understands that telling an unbiased and truthful story is by no means easy, but he accepts that challenge gratefully. “Most of the stories about our continent have been told by foreigners; first journalists flying in for a news story and nowadays more and more by tourists who have no idea or understanding of Africa and the countries they transit through while on vacation. The problem is that they all have a blog, social media and smartphones for instant updates – which is fine – but the problem is that their stories are not a true representation of reality and are mostly one-sided. Yet they get sent into the world and judged by others who know even less.””

AGENCES

Yeelenpix, une agence photo pour vendre une autre image de l’Afrique, par Sabine Cessou, RFI, le 10/04/15 ;

“« Tout est parti d’une remarque que m’a faite un jour une amie qui travaille dans la communication à Abidjan, explique-t-il. Elle était obligée d’aller acheter des images sur des plates-formes occidentales pour illustrer des documents destinés à ses clients africains, sans pouvoir recourir à des images africaines qui soient à portée de main et adaptées à ses besoins d’illustration. »”

RÉSEAUX SOCIAUX

Digital Archive No. 16 — Nigerian Nostalgia, par Liz Timbs, Africa is a Country, le 10/04/15 ;

“Over the years, the project has jumped from social media to the art scene, being featured in art exhibitions in LagosPhoto 2012 and a “Native Nostalgia” exhibit in Johannesburg in 2013-2014. The Lagos event, in particular, marked the first time that the project left the confines of social media, with the “intimately scaled prints cover the walls of the exhibition venue to form an encapsulating mural.”  Curator of LagosPhoto, Joseph Gergel, found that although there was doubt about the transition of the project into a gallery space and the ability to maintain the connectivity that marks the project online, but, he found, “it did: visitors conversed in person and exchanged their own memories of…cultural events.”  The analog presentations of the fruits of this digital projects shows just how far an endeavor of this kind can go in forging community outside of physical boundaries.”

8 Instagram accounts from Africa you should be following, par Sumaiya Ismail, One, le 6/04/15 ;

Loza Maléombho : « Je voulais montrer que j’étais fière d’être noire », par Diane-Audrey Ngako, Le Monde Afrique, le 10/04/14 ;

ARCHIVES

Iwalewahaus To Showcase Outputs Of African Artists, par Florence Utor, The Guardian Newspaper, le 5/04/15 ;

PHOTOGRAPHIE COLONIALE

Photographie, ruines archéologiques et politique coloniale en Algérie au XIXe siècle, par Anissa Yelles, Blog de l’ARIP, le 6/04/15 ;

“Dès les années 1840 et l’invention du daguerréotype, on observe la présence de photographes à Alger, ces voyageurs d’un nouveau genre sont les témoins “directs” de la politique coloniale entreprise notamment à l’égard du patrimoine archéologique.”

PUBLICATIONS

Nothing but Pictures: Alex Majoli and Paolo Pellegrin’s “Congo”, par Philip Gourevitch, The New Yorker, le 15/04/15 ;

(Ce  travail sera exposé lors du prochain festival d’Arles dans la section “Les plateformes du visible : nouvelles approches du documentaire”. Pour plus d’information sur la programmation du festival, cette année sous la houlette de Sam Stourzdé, voir l’article de L’Oeil de la photographie du 16/04/15)

VARIA

In pictures: Rhodes falls, Daily Maverick, le 10/04/15 ;

Art writing encourages dialogue in the Arts, par Gloria Kiconco, Start – A journal of Arts and Culture in East Africa, le 1/04/15 ;

Deux comptes-rendus de l’exposition “Modernités plurielles” du Centre Pompidou :

“Modernités plurielles” : quelle décolonisation du regard ?, par Maira Mora et Fedora Parkmann, Blog de l’ARIP, le 13/04/15 ;

A Frozen Perspective, par Sophie Eliot, Contemporary And, s.d.

LES ANNONCES DU MOIS

POPCAP’15 – International Prize for Contemporary African Photography annonce les lauréats 2015 : Filipe Branquinho, Tahir Karl Karmali, Zed Nelson, Zied Ben Romdhane, Romaric Tisserand.

Addis Video Art Festival (AVAV) – Call for participation

“Addis Video Art Festival intends to provide a platform for innovative video art in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The festival will screen throughout the city in a variety of locations including street corners, rooftops, public centers and art centers. By sharing video art in both conventional and non-conventional settings, the festival will reach both the artist community and the everyday passerby. The festival aims to create a dialogue between local, and international artists by encouraging digital media culture.

Addis Ababa is currently in the midst of massive transformation. It is expanding drastically, over a quarter of its current residents relocating to new neighborhoods. Old communities are disappearing and new ones are forming. Paralleling the current state of the city, Addis Video Art Festival seeks works that explore and interpret the complex idea of “new home” whether it be an external literal physical home, an internal psychological home or a cyber-home.”

Submission deadline August, 1 2015.

Limitations To Exploring Photography Off The Streets, April 17, 2015, Lagos. Panel discussion with visual artist Uche Okpa-Iroha, photographer Abraham Oghobase and photographer/curator Yagazie Emezi.

L’exposition “Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive” est présentée au C/O Berlin, du 18/04/15 au 14/06/15

“Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive presents the African archive as a real repository for historic images and objects, and simultaneously as the starting point for contemporary creative exploration and political discourse. The fundamental mutability of meaning is a key focal point of the study. Taking the exceptional depth and richness of historic African photography from the Walther Collection as its point of departure, the exhibition shows how images of Africans were determined by the contexts in which they were created and disseminated. What in one case functions as marginalization or a demeaning stereotype—the idealized warrior, the noble savage, the shy beauty—may, in another case, provide the material for iconoclastic revision. What is understood in one period as an ethnographic study or a means of imposing control may, in another period, become the cornerstone of a melancholy re-staging or satirical performance.”