Studio photography and the aesthetics of postcolonialism in The Gambia, West Africa.

摘要

This dissertation examines portrait photography in The Gambia, West Africa and has two main goals. First, I explain how and why Gambians practice photography, and second, I show how this form of self-presentation has compiled a record of local life that reflects the experience of the end of colonialism (1965). In turn, this work approaches Gambian photography as evidence for a locally developed body of ideas regarding the very nature of change and the manner in which the society of a former colony is capable of change and of becoming Independent.; As a creative process that theorizes the present, photography posits an affinity between the self and society---membership depends upon one's ability to assume specific forms of presence. Photography, in other words, is a consecrated activity. It is legitimated and codified, and considered to be accessible to people according to specific standards. The practice of photography suggests how people work at reinvigorating the intimacy of their relationship with society. As a social process caught up in the daily act of beautifying the self, I show how photography contributes to experiences of love, desire and submission that do not owe their first loyalty to the state.