Shifting identities: Contemporary photography in Mali.
Item
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Title
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Shifting identities: Contemporary photography in Mali.
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Identifier
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AAI3330401
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identifier
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3330401
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Creator
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Moore, Allison M.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Geoffrey Batchen
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Date
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2008
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art History
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Abstract
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Western audiences tend to be familiar with 'African photography' through the work of Mali's two most famous studio practitioners, Seydou Keita and Malick Sidibe. Yet Keita's and Sidibe's striking black and white commercial portraits, taken in the 1950s, '60s and '70s in Bamako, no longer reflect current practices in the city. However, the surge of international interest in Keita and Sidibe has ignited a new fascination with photography beyond the studio within Bamako itself. My dissertation examines this new 'art photography' movement, a term I use loosely to refer to various types of photography that have developed since the inauguration of the pan-African Bamako Photography Biennale ( Les rencontres africaines de la photographie), in 1994.;Since its inauguration, the Biennale has inspired virtually all aspects of the growing art photography movement in Bamako. Its presence has stimulated the creation of new photographic institutions and aroused the ambitions of individual photographers. The Biennale provides previously unheard of opportunities for Malian photographers to exhibit, publish, and interact with other African photographers, and as such functions as a nexus for pan-African dialogues, and as a stepping stone to the global art market.;Yet, as the Biennale is funded and largely run by the French Ministry of Culture, it is emblematic of the cultural exchange between Mali and its former colonizer. I argue that it is necessary to understand the contradictions of the Biennale as constitutive of the insoluble problematic of postcolonialism, and I view the Biennale as a site of struggle for the assertion of Malian agency and identities in the realm of global culture.;Examined against the backdrop of the Biennale, the art photography movement in Bamako operates as a forum where local debates on culture, history, politics, and identity are taken up in visual form. Such debates also animate the circumstances surrounding photographers' production, most remarkably in the entrance of women photographers into the professional arena. I argue that the art photography movement constitutes an important cultural phenomenon of contemporary Mali, where the intersection of Malian and Western values and influences are highly visible.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
