Photography and American Coloniality : Eliot Elisofon in Africa, 1942–1972 / Raoul J. Granqvist.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Granqvist, Raoul, 1940- author.

Series:

African humanities and the arts.

African humanities and the arts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Elisofon, Eliot--Travel--Africa.

Elisofon, Eliot.

Photojournalists--United States.

Photojournalists.

United States--Foreign relations--Africa.

United States.

Africa--Description and travel.

Africa.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (338 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

East Lansing, Michigan : Michigan State University Press, 2017.

Summary:

This book is the first to question both why and how the colonialist mythologies represented by the work of photographer Eliot Elisofon persist. It documents and discusses a heterogeneous practice of American coloniality of power as it explores Elisofon's career as war photographer-correspondent and staff photographer for LIFE , filmmaker, author, artist, and collector of "primitive art" and sculpture. It focuses on three areas: Elisofon's narcissism, voyeurism, and sexism; his involvement in the homogenizing of Western social orders and colonial legacies; and his enthused mission of "sending home" a mass of still-life photographs, annexed African artifacts, and assumed vintage knowledge. The book does not challenge his artistic merit or his fascinating personality; what it does question is his production and imagining of "difference." As the text travels from World War II to colonialism, postcolonialism, and the Cold War, from Casablanca to Leopoldville (Kinshasa), it proves to be a necessarily strenuous and provocative trip.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. En Route from Scandinavia to Africa, 1942-1944: On Becoming a Trickster with a Hungry Camera and a Loud Mouth

Chapter 2. Colonial Travel and Colonial Habits: Early Years, Elisofon in Africa, 1947 and 1951

Chapter 3. African Women Walk, African Men Sit, African Children Are: Gender as Difference, Exclusion, Segregation, and Passage

Chapter 4. From Colony to Colonized: Elisofon Fashioning Nigeria

Chapter 5. Elisofon's and LIFE's Literary Africa: White Mythologies, Racism, and Cold War Politics

Chapter 6. The American Broadcasting Company's Africa, 1966-1967: A Shock of Change and an Updated Safari

Chapter 7. The Cold War Affinity between Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko and the United States' Eliot Elisofon

Chapter 8. The Politics of the Black African Heritage Series, 1970-1972

Chapter 9. Elisofon Collecting Artifacts and Elisofon Curated: Colonialist Power

Conclusion

Appendix. LIFE Photo Essays by or with Eliot Elisofon

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-62895-288-1

1-60917-518-2

OCLC:

968727211