ABSTRACT
In the private use of photography, the context of the instant recorded is preserved so that the photograph lives in an ongoing continuity. In this chapter, the author uses evidence from a variety of photographs made in Cameroon to explore different approaches to photography as evidence and as the basis of narrative. In J. Berger's terms, both private and public uses are possible once the image has been redeemed. Post-mortem their children may take the card to another photographer (or an anthropologist) to have the photograph (often the only image of a deceased parent) copied for display on the wall: they are changing the representation. When a Cameroonian citizen went to a local studio photographer to have a photograph taken for their national identity card, they were literally inscribing themselves into the nation state. Photographs occasion stories and reminiscences may themselves trigger new photographs or searches for old ones.
