Perhaps the simplest form of virtual reality, it also enables us to experience faraway places and people without ever leaving home. Nonetheless, photography maintains its power to seduce us into be lieving that it presents truths. Western representations of Africa and Africans, whether in the realms of science or popular culture, are a case in point. A willingness to believe in the veracity of such photographs, which present an inherently distorted view, has contributed to ongoing misunderstanding.
Some works are documentary, others experimental, while many are hybrids.
The exhibition begins with portraits from the 1940s and 1950s, during the dismantling of European colonial rule on the continent. Simultaneously, Kwame Nkrumah, in Ghana, forged his concept of a unified pan-African identity based more u pon political and economic contingencies than on ideas of ethnicity and tradition. The intimate studio portraits of Salla Casset, Me ssa Gaye, and Seydou Keita emerged in the transformative atmosphere shaped by debates concerning independence and identity. By the late 1940s, each of these photographers had established studios that cater ed to a clientele of varied economic means. For many of the subjects, the portraits provided a realm in which to project their fantasies.