The African Gaze: Photography, Cinema and Power
An accessible, comprehensive exploration of postcolonial and contemporary photography and cinema from Africa.
Filles du bar-dansing, Léopoldville, 1955-65 © Jean Depara, Courtesy Revue Noire
At a time when engagement with Black and African histories is stronger than ever before (and long overdue), the new illustrated book The African Gaze offers a wide-ranging, critical introduction to African moving and still imagery.
Major names of African photography, such as Malick Sidibé, Sanlé Sory, and Seydou Keïta have become highly collectible in the art market, while African cinema, pioneered by filmmakers such as Ousmane Sembène in 1960s Senegal, is now recognized for its creative innovation and storytelling.
Author Amy Sall, a researcher, former university lecturer, and collector-archivist, reveals the work and lives of 50 image-makers from across the continent, from stars such as Samuel Fosso, James Barnor, and Souleymane Cissé, to rediscovered artists deserving of wider appreciation.
Courtesy of Thames & Hudson
The book draws from archival imagery and documents, interviews with photographers and filmmakers, and contributions from writers, scholars and curators – including Mamadou Diouf, Yasmina Price, and Zoé Samudzi – to create an engaging discussion around the work of African image-makers in relation to identity, colonial history, autonomy, and liberation politics.
Courtesy of Thames & Hudson
Amy Sall is a writer, independent researcher, and collector-archivist based in New York. She is the founding editor of SUNU: Journal of African Affairs, Critical Thought + Aesthetics, a pan-African, post-disciplinary platform exploring the artistic, cultural and intellectual production of Africa and the diaspora across time and space. Amy holds a master’s degree in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University. As a Part-time Lecturer at The New School, New York, she conceived and taught two courses, ‘The African Gaze: Visual Culture of Postcolonial Africa and the Social Imagination’ and ‘Third Cinema & the Counter Narratives’. Her private collection, The Sall Collection, is an assemblage of studio and other vernacular photography, printed matter and ephemera with a pan-African focus. Amy’s work and interests explore the theory and praxis of cultural sovereignty, cultural preservation, anti-/de-/post-coloniality, human rights, visual culture and the archive.
The African Gaze: Photography, Cinema and Power
Amy Sall, with texts by Mamadou Diouf, Yasmina Price, and Zoé Samudzi
Thames & Hudson, 25 July 2024
Hardcover, 288 pages, 250 ills.
RRP £45