The African Gaze: Photography, Cinema and Power by Amy Sall

This new book is an important overview of some of the most intriguing photography in the world, says Amy Davies

- Amy Davies

£45, Thames and Hudson, hardcover, 288 pages, ISBN: 9780500025390

If you’ve been keen to educate yourself on the history of African photography, but haven’t been entirely sure where to begin, then a book like this will be a gift for you.

This comprehensive exploration of postcolonial and contemporary photography (and cinema) from Africa draws upon extensive archival imagery and documents, as well as interviews with the photographers and filmmakers featured (or relatives/associates if the artist is deceased).

Alongside that, we also have essays from writers, scholars and curators which all help to put the work into context. Overall, the result is a fantastic introduction to an area that has been all too often overlooked until relatively recently.

This new book has been beautifully put together, with some extraordinary imagery and stories. It consists of two sections (photography and cinema), with each featuring 25 artists, and each attempting to ensure there is a good geographical balance and representation.

My interest lies more squarely with the photography section, but there’s still plenty to enjoy in the cinema half too.

Some of the biggest names in African photography/cinematography are included in this volume – if you don’t know them, now is the time to find out who they are. That includes Malick Sidibé, Sanlé Sory and Seydou Keïta, who have all become highly collectible figures in the art market.

Other names you might perhaps recognise a bit more readily include Samuel Fosso and Ernest Cole, both of which we have featured in recent years here in Amateur Photographer. An extended interview with Fosso is also included in the book.

The book is edited by Amy Sall, who is a writer, independent researcher and collector archivist based in New York. She’s also the founding editor of SUNU: Journal of African Affairs, Critical Thought + Aesthetics.