Africa Snap
We've been taken with the photography of African artists since we first laid eyes on one of Malick Sidibé's signature Malian portraits--you know the one--that kid leaning back like a cool cat from the 60s. And we note that that West African nation seems to produce more than its fair share of brilliant photographers. The Tate Modern's current discussion series Global Photography Now aims to unpack the sum and substance of photography from around the world, including a session on North Africa that was held on December 1 and another on West Africa to be held December 9 at the Tate in London.
According to the Tate, the discussions "address a wide variety of significant themes and concerns emerging in the latest photography, and assess the impact of, for example, historic images and the media on the direction current practice takes." Ah yes, past becomes present as present becomes future. Participating in the West Africa discussion are artists Akinbode Akinbiyi, Mamadou Gomis, and Zaynab Toyosi Odunsi discussing their work with writer-critic Nancy Hynes and Augustus Casely-Hayford, director of inIVA.
The Tate isn't the first to note the trenchant importance of African photography, as we note that this is just the latest in a long string of exhibitions and symposia dedicated to the topic, not the least of which was ICP's pivotal Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography curated by Nigerian-born Okwui Enwezor in New York.
8 December 2006