Revue de presse #60 – Avril 2018

La revue de presse d’avril 2018 est légère en terme de volume, mais consistante par son contenu qui pousse la réflexion plus loin, notamment avec le retour des collections photographiques du Pitts Rivers Museum parmi les descendants des personnes photographiées au début du 20e siècle en contexte colonial (photo). En Namibie, la photographie fait débat, défiant les pouvoirs et prouvant qu’il existe de nombreuses façons d’être namibien. Pour compléter cette revue, quelques nouvelles de la scène photographique contemporaine et les remarques pertinentes de Neelika Jayawardane, à propos de la sélection des participants à la Joop Swart Masterclass du World Press Photo. Bonne lecture !

ACTUALITÉ DES PHOTOGRAPHES

In Conversation With Fatoumata Diabaté, par Khadidiatou Cissé, The Sole Adventurer, le 29/04/18 ;

Artist. Activist. Historian. This man is preserving the past to protect the future, BeautifulNews, le 26/04/18 ;

“Art is an act of resistance. It asserts our agency. Omar Badsha has identified not only as an artist, but an activist for most of his life. Born in 1945, he grew up under the oppression of apartheid, facing injustice on a daily basis. He was harassed, his work was banned, and his movement was restricted. But Badsha fought back with photography.”

A 23-Year-Old Ugandan Photographer Documents Youth in Her Country, par James Estrin, The New York Times, le 19/04/18 ;

“A six-month grant from the Uganda Press Photo Award spurred Esther Mbabazi to document what it is like to be a teenager in Uganda, where the half the country’s citizens are under 16. (…)  “I settled on teenagers because they are just starting to get a sense of independence in their lives.”

Daïbi : L’Afrique des chasseurs. Un témoignage d’Ishola Akpo, Afrique in visu, le 9/04/18 ;

“
Plusieurs légendes Yorouba valorisent les chasseurs notamment ceux de Nago de Savè. L’Afrique des chasseurs inspire le photographe Ishola Akpo pour sa nouvelle série dans laquelle il campe un dieu imaginaire : Daïbi. Ce dernier rentre dans le panthéon des dieux sans le cérémonial habituel. Le photographe lui prête ses propres origines, mais aussi son corps et ses fantasmes. René Char disait qu’on n’est pas responsable de ses obsessions.”

DÉBATS

Who gets to picture and narrate Africa?, par Neelika Jayawardane, Al Jazeera, le 26/04/18 ;

“The World Press Photo Foundation recently announced the participants selected for the 2018 Joop Swart Masterclass. It is the foundation’s flagship education programme that “rewards the most talented emerging visual journalists and is designed to support and enhance diversity in visual journalism and storytelling”.

This year, far more women were selected, and that alone must be commended in a field that routinely overlooks women. Although the immensely talented Leonard Pongo, who is Belgian, but of Congolese descent, was one of the selected photographers; African-born, Africa-based photographers – male or female – were notably absent.

Why is this lack of representation from African countries so important?

Gifted and experienced photographers from the continent continue to be marginalised. Lack of recognition by powerful organisations like World Press Photo (WPP) and Magnum means that photographers lose out on opportunities to enhance their technical ability and network with each other and commissioning editors.”

EXPOSITIONS

The Postcolonial Moment. Capturing a lost era in Sanlé Sory’s studio portraits in Burkina Faso, par Chris Abani, The New Republic, le 19/04/18 ;

In Marrakech, African Photography on Its Own Terms, par Sean O’Toole, Aperture, le 11/04/18 ;

“The eccentricities characterizing MACAAL’s debut photography exhibition design and approach to information notwithstanding, Africa Is No Island is a confident expression of Lazraq’s passion for the medium and ebullient vision to make his North African museum a destination for photography enthusiasts.”

Refraction: New Photography of Africa and Its Diaspora, Steven Kasher Gallery, New York –19 April – 2 June 2018. Addis Fine Art, avril 2018 ;

“The exhibition is curated by Steven Kasher Gallery Director Cassandra Johnson and Niama Safia Sandy, Independent Curator and Cultural Anthropologist.”

ARCHIVES

Bringing it all back: the visual repatriation of historical photograph collections from the Pitt Rivers Museum to the Turkana of Northern Kenya, par Samuel Derbyshire, Pitt Rivers Museum Photograph Collections, le 20/04/18 ;

“In returning to the question of why and how colonial-era photographic collections, and later images crafted amidst their visual legacies, might be relevant to contemporary African societies, issues and futures, the case from Turkana raises two key points. Firstly, that one of the most convincing and effective ways of shattering the powerful myths that such collections conjure is returning them to the communities they pertain to and, in the process of doing so, using them to write new histories. Secondly, that because of the often deeply potent and evocative nature of such collections (features well understood by anyone who has used photo-elicitation in their research) their political ramifications and connotations are never at rest, never fixed or resolved. There is, to the contrary, a great deal still up for grabs.”

Marginalised Namibians are trying to reclaim photography after colonialism, par Hugh Ellis, The Conversation, le 15/04/18 ;

“This picture was taken though the window of a curio shop which sells artefacts supposedly representing Namibia, chiefly to tourists. A hand is seen in the reflection making the sign language symbol for Namibia. On the inside of the window a sculpture of a Himba woman and child wearing traditional dress can be seen, as well as what appear to be a necklace and a carved sculpture of an elephant.

The picture seems to suggest that there are many ways of being Namibian, and that the image presented to foreign visitors is only partially correct. It’s only part of the story. These pictures seem to challenge, or at least question, societal power relationships in Namibia. My participants said in interviews that photography could be a challenge to power structures.”

Comment les photos historiques de l’Afrique du Sud sont pillées, Courrier international, le 18/04/18 ;

“Après la mort de l’icône sud-africaine Winnie Madikizela-Mandela le 2 avril, des clichés historiques ont été utilisés sans l’autorisation de leurs auteurs. Le Mail & Guardian a tenté de retrouver ceux qui revendent frauduleusement et impunément les droits de ces photos. (…) L’héritage des photographes noirs sud-africains est régulièrement “pillé, volontairement ou non, par des agences de presse de renom tels que Gallo, Getty ou l’AFP”, constate le journal. Dans son enquête, le Mail & Guardian épingle certaines banques d’images, parfois peu regardantes sur l’origine des clichés historiques qu’elles proposent à leurs clients.”

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