In this Book
- Photography and American Coloniality: Eliot Elisofon in Africa, 1942–1972
- Book
- 2017
- Published by: Michigan State University Press
- Series: African Humanities and the Arts
summary
This book is the first to question both why and how the colonialist mythologies represented by the work of photographer Eliot Elisofon persist. It documents and discusses a heterogeneous practice of American coloniality of power as it explores Elisofon’s career as war photographer-correspondent and staff photographer for LIFE, filmmaker, author, artist, and collector of “primitive art” and sculpture. It focuses on three areas: Elisofon’s narcissism, voyeurism, and sexism; his involvement in the homogenizing of Western social orders and colonial legacies; and his enthused mission of “sending home” a mass of still-life photographs, annexed African artifacts, and assumed vintage knowledge. The book does not challenge his artistic merit or his fascinating personality; what it does question is his production and imagining of “difference.” As the text travels from World War II to colonialism, postcolonialism, and the Cold War, from Casablanca to Leopoldville (Kinshasa), it proves to be a necessarily strenuous and provocative trip.
Table of Contents
Additional Information
ISBN
9781609175184
Related ISBN(s)
9781611862362, 9781628952889, 9781628962888
MARC Record
OCLC
968727211
Pages
337
Launched on MUSE
2017-01-31
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2017