Think of Africa and you envision wild animals, conflicts, starving kids and suffering. On a whole, this continent hasn’t had the best of times in the past few hundred years. Whilst for some it might be a fact of life, for others it’s a rite of passage in an industry that thrives on misery and suffering.
As a photographer, you can’t go wrong when landing in any African city and set about trying to create a story, this continent is often visual and in your face.
The problem starts with the people taking the image. On a whole, they are white males and not from Africa. Just like Americans love to do the “I’m going to Europe” trip, white male photographer species love to visit Africa (yes there is an airport named Africa, when you land you will see an elephant taxi outside, they can take you to the nearest starving black kid).
Now there isn’t anything wrong with being a white male and using him to do stories here, but what about the local talent? Believe it or not, African people DO use cameras and there is a wealth of talent on this continent.
When I arrived back in South Africa, after a long period away, I was amazed to see how little the world knew of African photography. If you look at the annual competitions by PDN and others, showcasing the work of emerging photographers, you’d think that the photography world only had Europeans and Americans in it.
Bollocks.
So, deciding to do something about it, I started a blog to hunt out the gems of African photography and show the world that these photographers do exist and yes, they can photograph their country as good as anyone from Europe or America can, and in most cases often do better.
NGO’s are often in countries to try and make life better for the people, so here’s an idea, how about hiring all local talent next time you need a story documented? Don’t fly in an expensive foreign photographer, don’t use the main agencies, find someone who knows the area well, has the ability to produce the content you require and does so using local knowledge and resources.
Take a look at Paul Sika’s use of colour when photographing fashion in Africa. Look at Richard Mark Dobson’s amazing multimedia piece on the Crest Hotel in Hillbrow, Nicholas Aldridge, Rob Hunter, and Ian van Coller all produce amazing work, but I bet hardly any foreign editor has ever heard of them.
Africa does have more to offer than the cliched pain and suffering. I understand that this sells, I understand that as I’m asked to shoot stories that feature said suffering, but there is a wealth of happy stories to be told, it just takes that one publication or editor to put the trust in a local and ask them to create it.
You might just be amazed.
Daniel (White male, half-African, with a camera)
Duckrabbit
Daniel thanks for such a thought provoking piece and welcome to duckrabbit as a contributor (lucky us) … look forward to reading your thoughts on here as I always do on your blog. THANKS.
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