poses before colonialism, and its post-colonial
incarnation, FTM, services tourism.
Although generally agency photographers were
allowed and indeed expected to document the poli-
tical process and government activities in a way
that had been illegal before independence, they
worked in the service and within the boundaries
of the new states’ ideologies. Photographic image
production, with its accompanying authority in
appearing to present ‘‘reality,’’ became a way for
the new governments to assert their authenticity,
but often at the expense of truth. In many coun-
tries, the public eventually came to doubt the vera-
city of official photography, which was often
censored by corrupt post-colonial governments.
From the turn of the century until the 1960s,
however, commercial black-and-white studio por-
traiture constituted the most popular and wide-
spread type of photography in sub-Saharan
Africa. Although studio photography was intro-
duced by Europeans, Africans began to open their
own studios for African clientele as early as the
1880s in some areas. At first only available to the
wealthy, who were usually civil servants working
for the colonial governments, photography became
affordable to the growing middle classes in many
parts of Africa by the 1930s. Many photographers
learned their trade working in an older photogra-
pher’s studio, although sometimes soldiers who
had fought in Europe during the world wars
returned home with cameras and newly learned
photographic techniques. The need for identity
photos contributed to the proliferation of photo-
graphers not only in cities but in rural areas.
Through studio portraits, Africans were able to
participate in their own image creation, a practice
that acted as a valuable social and cultural resis-
tance to colonialism. The portrait photograph, a
collaboration between photographer and subject in
the creation of the subject’s own self-image, was a
particularly apt genre for this re-imaging of photo-
graphy from an African point of view. Photo-
graphic portraiture was seen as modern and
embraced for its modernity. Portraits were taken
to commemorate special and celebratory occasions,
in which the sitters usually posed in their best
clothing. Photographs were hung in living rooms,
set in photo albums that were shown to guests, or
sent back by urban migrants to their rural families.
Such photographs were usually made directly from
contact prints using box cameras without an
enlarger, and so were quite small. Usually a photo-
grapher who took over another’s studio ‘‘inher-
ited’’ the former owner’s negatives as well.
Recognizable traits developed in certain areas that
appear to show regional photographic practices,
like the patterned backdrop or portraits of two
sitters in matching clothing in West Africa.
Studio photography remained popular after inde-
pendence, but the introduction of color labs starting
from the late 1960s through the 1980s drastically
reduced the number of studios and their ability to
survive economically. The new technology appears to
have contributed to the decline of the studio photo-
grapher and the increased prominence of the itiner-
ant photographer, thus initiating a new aesthetic.
Usually young men hoping to make a living without
previous training in a studio, the itinerant photogra-
phers have been criticized by the older black-and-
white studio photographers as lacking in quality.
Few women African photographers have been
recognized to date, but Stephen Sprague records
women working as studio photographers in Nigeria
in the 1970s, and Heike Behrend has documented
women practicing photography recently in Mom-
basa, Kenya. Several women also worked for Gui-
nea’s Syli-Photo in the 1960s. Currently, Jo
Ractliffe and Penny Siopsis of South Africa, Zarina
Bhimji of Uganda, and Lamia Naji of Morocco are
working internationally as contemporary art photo-
graphers. Other male contemporary art photogra-
phers with international reputations today include
Zwelethu Mthethwa and Santu Mofokeng of South
Africa, Samuel Fosso of Central African Republic,
Philip Kwame Apagya of Ghana, and Tahoumi
Ennadre of Morocco.
ALLISONMoore
Seealso:Ballen, Roger; Fosso, Samuel; National
Geographic; Photography in Africa: Central and
West; Photography in Africa: East Africa and Indian
Ocean Islands; Photography in Africa: North; Pho-
tography in Africa: South and Southern; PortraitureFurther Reading
Behrend, Heike, and Jean-Franc ̧ ois Werner, eds. ‘‘Photo-
graphies and Modernities in Africa.’’Visual Anthropol-
ogy, v. 14, no. 3, (2001).
Bell, Clare, Okwui Enwezor, Danielle Tilkin, Octavio Zaya,
and Olu Oguibe.In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to
the Present. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Mu-
seum, 1996.
Coombes, Anni.Reinventing Africa. New Haven: Yale Uni-
versity Press, 1994.
Enwezor, Okwui, ed.The Short Century: Independence and
Liberation Movements in Africa 1945–1994. Munich:
Prestel, 2001.
Fall, N’gone ́, and Pascal Martin Saint Le ́on, eds.Anthology
of African and Indian Ocean Photography. Paris, France:
E ́ditions Revue Noire, 1999.
Geary, Christraud.In and Out of Focus: Images from Cen-
tral Africa, 1885–1960. Washington, D.C.: NationalAFRICA: AN OVERVIEW, PHOTOGRAPHY IN