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Article: A Matter of Record: Black Photography in Ghana.
- Article from:
- American Visions
- Article date:
- December 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Heritage Information Holdings, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Historians did not write the early histories of Africa; missionaries, adventurers, explorers and conquerors defined Africa first. By 1900 the "Conradization" and the "Kiplingization" of Africa were well under way. The imagery of the "Dark Continent," so pervasive even in today's literature, was crystallized long ago, and the literature of that era mirrors the early photographs that emerged from Africa.
European photographic depictions of Africa generally fell along four lines of representation: subjects that were half-naked (especially women), fierce warriors, blank-faced chiefs or posed in submissive positions. Photographs depicting Africans in any other light ...