ABSTRACT
Exploring the origins of photography in Africa and the origins of African photography reveals at times parallel and at times intersecting narratives. Photography in Africa developed alongside colonialism and within the dynamics of globalization that included the establishment of a cash economy and new forms of patronage. Historically, the origins of African photography, including the first African photographers, arose at a moment of radically shifting geopolitical and economic realities, or, to phrase it differently, postcolonial uncertainties. Many postcolonial writers have conceptualized African agency in early photographic practices, however, as marking a distinction from colonial photography and the colonial gaze rather than as developing out of a complex network of international social, political, and economic relations. The international art market's interest in African photography was closely intertwined with developments taking place in academia, especially in disciplines such as history and social anthropology.
