Land of Many Colors

Photo © Phylis Galembo

Africa has always been a continent of such wild extremes — cultural and geographic, political and demographic — that it defies categorization, lives in its own realm, yet continues to impact the entire planet. These days the land is much in the news as turmoil in the Niger Delta exacerbates the global oil crisis; the U.S. prepares to nominate its first African-American major-party contender; and the world debates war-crimes charges against a sitting president, among other things. All of which serves as a backdrop to an ambitious series of photo exhibitions called Africas, at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, from now to September.

The three concurrent shows take very different swipes at a vast subject. The outlandish pageantry of tribal costumes in West Africa is on display in artist Phylis Galembo's West African Masquerade. (Her shot of Ngar Ball traditional dancers is above.) The complex and destructive turf wars in Nigeria's oil industry are explored in Ed Kashi's Curse of the Black Gold. And nuggets from the Eastman House's permanent collection come out of the vaults for a survey show of African images shot by such names as Margaret Bourke-White, Eugene Smith, Arnold Newman, and Mary Ellen Mark.

The resulting set is more elliptical than comprehensive. "It no pretense of painting a complete regional portrait," reporter Stuart Low opines in a thorough review of the shows. "Africas is an immensely colorful, often disturbing introduction to a hub of bloody revolt, wrenching poverty and age-old village rituals."

The most hard-hitting work is Kashi's, which stems from years-long reportage, as he explains to American Photo in this recent interview, as well as a previous feature on the project. Kashi has also set up a website and published a new book on this work (his shot of Nigerian oil workers is at right). "I came away from this project feeling that oil is just this nasty, dirty stuff," he says. "It pollutes everyone and everything that it comes in contact with."

This disturbing study stands in vivid contrast to Galembo's images of elaborate costumes and dramatic rituals, showing African natives at their most wildly creative (left). "They have intentionally transformed themselves into something exotic, charged, even frightening," says musician/photographer David Byrne in a blog about the project. "These are not people in their ordinary dress — they are intentionally fantastic, shocking, wild."

To provide historic perspective, the Photographs from the Eastman House Collection segment features culturally important moments like Nelson Mandela's release from prison. The work ranges from a rare 1845 daguerreotype from Mozambique to stereo cards from the 1920s, from travel shots by Bourke-White and Newman to portraits by Nickolas Muray (whose 1957 shot is below right). "This exhibition is not in any way an exhaustive survey of African photographs, nor is it an African take on Africa," says curator Alison Nordström. "Rather it is a random slice of our collection that reveals as much by absence as by presence." — Jack Crager

Comments

[sandpaper]

thanks for the entry but the text, dude...

would't it be just about time we got tired of all these cliches? "land of wild contrasts", "defies categorization", "lives in its own realm, yet continues to impact the entire planet".

I reckon that's as true about Africa as it is about Hicksville, Pensiltucky.

Every land is a land of contrasts isn't it? Even most villages i know at the end of the day "defy categorization" in one way or the other.