The Colonising Camera

Description:

The Colonising Camera is groundbreaking and unique in several respects. First of all, it focuses on the history of visual representation in what is now the country of Namibia, examining the use and role of photography in the precolonial days, then during the German colonial period, the British-South African occupation and the era of independence and decolonisation.

This emphasis on a particular territory and a political entity that has been separated from other regions, partly through geography and certainly through history, allows insights not possible in other instances. In fact, Namibia emerges as an ideal site for such in-depth research.

Secondly, the authors shift emphasis from photography seen as representation and passive expression of the colonial situation to photography as an active agent in the construction of colonialism. The result is not a 'visual' or 'photographic' history of Namibia, rather it is a history of the role of the visual and photographic in the creation of Namibia. Finally the authors demonstrate an excellent grasp of current photographic theory.