Two children with spears, 19th century
In this photograph, we see two Sudanese boys posing in a studio. They each sit on a rock, holding spears extended out in their right hands. It is clear they are in a studio because you can see where the backdrop and the floor meet.
As part of the project of colonization, European photographers took it upon themselves to capture African people before they "disappeared." One main appeal of photography was the idea that photographs were an undeniable truth, but pictures like this suggest otherwise. This photo captures a culture that is being destroyed, but there is no evidence of destruction or the effects of colonization. The photographer tried to imitate the culture, without showing the changes caused by colonization, dressing them in native costume and posing them on rocks in front of a scene of nature. This photograph does not aim to represent the truth of what was happening in Sudan at the time it was taken; it is a reflection of an idealized past.
Another reason European photographers wanted to take photographs of African people was to define the ‘other.’ However, defining the ‘other’ is more of a definition of self. Studio portraits like this photograph were a European import. We see similar spaces in cartes-de-visite, a type of photograph that drew inspiration from portraiture conventions devised long before the invention of the camera. Here the boys are posed and the photograph itself is composed in a way that recalls similar images of bourgeois European subjects. Even when trying to capture the an image of native Africans in the name of preservation and cultural definition, this image still managed to Westernize these boys. The reflection of the self, the European photographer, is evident in this photo, as well as the intersection of art, science, and the question of whether or not photographs are a mirror of reality.
As part of the project of colonization, European photographers took it upon themselves to capture African people before they "disappeared." One main appeal of photography was the idea that photographs were an undeniable truth, but pictures like this suggest otherwise. This photo captures a culture that is being destroyed, but there is no evidence of destruction or the effects of colonization. The photographer tried to imitate the culture, without showing the changes caused by colonization, dressing them in native costume and posing them on rocks in front of a scene of nature. This photograph does not aim to represent the truth of what was happening in Sudan at the time it was taken; it is a reflection of an idealized past.
Another reason European photographers wanted to take photographs of African people was to define the ‘other.’ However, defining the ‘other’ is more of a definition of self. Studio portraits like this photograph were a European import. We see similar spaces in cartes-de-visite, a type of photograph that drew inspiration from portraiture conventions devised long before the invention of the camera. Here the boys are posed and the photograph itself is composed in a way that recalls similar images of bourgeois European subjects. Even when trying to capture the an image of native Africans in the name of preservation and cultural definition, this image still managed to Westernize these boys. The reflection of the self, the European photographer, is evident in this photo, as well as the intersection of art, science, and the question of whether or not photographs are a mirror of reality.