The Museum of Modern Art is now focusing on the use of African studio portraiture to illustrate how portraits have sharply changed how we view identity, self-expression and freedom. The fact that portraiture is not just a means of recording an individual’s existence but rather demonstrates how people in Africa exercised their right to govern how they would express themselves – especially during colonisation and early independence.
Studio photography was a major trend in Africa. They have a say in their clothing choices, as well as their poses, props, and facial expressions when they enter the photo studio. This choice allowed individuals to present themselves as more than just “colonial subjects” being photographed from a safe distance.
These portraits provide a challenge to prior notions of viewing African photography as merely docuementary. Rather, they show photography to be creative, aspirational and influential. The studio allowed the imagination to connect with reality and provided a medium for individuals to express their freedom through photography.
Photography as Self-Determination and Cultural Expression
Africa was heavily influenced by bold clothing styles, contemporary accessories and carefully constructed backgrounds, all of which reflected the transforming nature of societies and their potential for change at a time of great worldwide advancement and change. For instance, individuals tended to pose beside bicycles, radios, books, or attractive and fashionable furniture.
MoMA’s research looks at the ways in which the photographer worked with their model to create a photograph together rather than in a hierarchical manner in which one was the dominant figure. As both parties collaborated on the construction of the image, they created an image that conveyed both dignity and individuality, thereby transforming the colonial relationship.
Many of the people in these pictures experienced many social changes & changes in social roles as the African countries became independent & created a new identity for themselves that blends their heritage. Their photographic portraiture from studios helped many young adults create their new modern identity.
The Museum of Modern Art is presenting African Studio Photographs in an Art Historical Context to assert the significance of these photographic artworks as part of a larger visual culture and as a global contribution to the development of modernity and contemporary visual art practice.
In showing this work at its exhibition, MoMA is restating the relevance of these works today. The ongoing discussion about representation and identity presents the opportunity for artists and spectators to see how these photographs give evidence of self-creation and resilience through visual power.
This exhibition demonstrates that freedom is about more than just political events of great significance; it also encompasses how individuals present themselves to others in stillness and in motion through the way they dress and carry their bodies as well as in the way they look at a camera lens.
