It’s Africa – No context needed
Written by duckrabbitA huge amount of effort has gone into this project but the presentation on the Guardian feels half arsed.
This is all the information that is given to the project which features 50 portraits of fifty people from The Congo:
Gallery (50 pictures), 12 Jun 2010:
From the doctor to the crocodile keeper,
the model to the general,Stephan Vanfleterenmarks half a century of Congolese independence
There is no more context.
That’s OK though because this is Africa where no context is needed. It’s the county of football and rape.
RESPONSE:
Scarlet Lion
Perhaps more introductory text could have been posted, but I think that if you click through a lot of the images and read all of the text, you see beautiful and dignified portraits of people and get a small glimpse of their lives. Sometimes exploring haphazardly is as good as a complete political history.
Author — duckrabbit
duckrabbit is a production company formed by radio producer/journalist Benjamin Chesterton and photographer David White. We specialize in digital storytelling.
Discussion (9 Comments)
Perhaps more introductory text could have been posted, but I think that if you click through a lot of the images and read all of the text, you see beautiful and dignified portraits of people and get a small glimpse of their lives. Sometimes exploring haphazardly is as good as a complete political history.
I agree Glenna but at least a statement by the artist would be helpful. Its too easy to think that their lives are shit because they are African. I also feel like we’ve seen this style of portrait so many times recently. Black and white with very shallow depths of field. It feels overused.
@duckrabbit and @Glenna I agree with both of you.
The semi-structured exploration is a nice way to experience things, and is one way of conveying context.
But the information is lacking. There is no visual context in the images, no sense of surroundings–which isn’t bad in and of itself, but compounds the lack of information given in the text. Then, the text below each image is tough to read. It could be improved by better graphic design, better editing, more focused interviews–the information is all over the map. Sometimes the lack of a narrative is just as constraining or empty as too much narrative.
And the pictures themselves…at first glance I find them sort of beautiful, and sort of boring. I think I’m wishing they had more emotion. The people seem very remote, inaccessible to me.
i kinda agree with Duck of Rabbit. in a way. firstly, it like a perverse portfolio ambition of some photographers to “do” Africa like this… purely aesthetic. understandable but not helpful to Africa’s image. which is why i admire The Gentlemen of Bacongo, published by Trolley Books. http://trolleybooks.com/bookSingle.php?bookId=118
the book was first introduced to us at Nissan Design Inspiration talk last year (spinoff of London Design Festival 2009) by maverick Trolley publisher, Gigi Gianuzzi. it’s a reportage about street style and – dare i say this on Duckrabbit blog – fashion – of the dandy men of Congo. yet somehow photographer Daniele Tamagni managed to show the charming human side of Congo. the book even inspired Sir Paul Smith to create a special collection of suits in honour of these Congolese men.
http://trolleybooks.com/blog/2009/09/paul-smith-london-fashion-week-show-inspired-by-gentlemen-of-bacongo/
so yes, photographers can inspire/influence the design community and creative directors. we always look for an outlet to portray Africa differently, within our capacity. but you guys gotta think outside the box. create your own tradition… btw i cannot think of one main opinion-leading photographic festival in London that functions as a creative exchange platform. or am i just ignorant? you educate me…
This collection of images may lack a little context on the Guardian website, but to blame the photographer for bringing a purely aesthetic view on Africa is a bit easy though. This series is a side project (bought by the Flemish Government in Belgium). The photographer visited Congo several times with a journalist for a book project. The book was launched in March and brings context, photos and stories together and is defintely not reenforcing the typical stereotype view of the Congo.
Bruno, thanks for more info on the project. Its a shame that info wasn’t easy to find on the Guardian.
well I guess it doesn’t help that the book is only available in Dutch. A shame, considering it’s really good work.
I think that even without the context, if the viewer can connect to the images and then becomes interested and does a bit of googling, more might be learnt than in a shallow 300 word political history that wouldn’t really explain anything at all. I think there are a lot of ways into the idea of understanding another place, and a straightforward “context” isn’t always what works. It’s easy for a viewers eyes to glaze over and for too little context to really explain nothing at all. There’s something to be said for the sort of collector’s encounter these photos provide. I think someone who doesn’t know much about Congo might learn more from the 50 portraits and 50 captions than if he just read today’s news briefs, or even worse, some kind of short sighted and condensed context that can’t really teach anything.
Also, the example you posted here is one of the portraits and captions that tell the least about daily life for the Congolese – compared with, for example the portraits of the photographer or the doctor. So in a way, this photo is taken out of context from the series…