ABSTRACT
Camera design actively encourages the balance and symmetry of the centrally framed subject. When it is superimposed on the subject of the people portrait, the split-image focusing aid or centered auto-focus mark is like a bull’s eye. Sander’s work is most interesting when it escapes his stated intention. It is tightly framed bull's-eye confrontation, containing only barest amount of environmental detail that might help the viewer draw conclusions about the quality of the subject's life. The surrounding context of Allie Mae Burroughs's life, and the quality of that life, may be only partly inferred from the photograph-all the people have is the expression on her face and the stark orderliness of the background. The pictures are confrontational, but they do not feel confrontational. Apagya’s work is a good-natured variation on an African tradition of studio portraiture, exemplified by Seydou Keita, in which the resolutely solemn pride of the sitter can be taken as subtle sign of resistance to colonial subjugation.
