African female photographers: owning the narrative through images

BY SELINA McCALLUM

One question Sandrine Colard heard a lot when working on the photography exhibit titled, The Way She Looks: A History of Female Gazes in African Portraiture, was if there were even African photographers in the past.

Colard is an art historian, writer and curator based in New York and Brussels. A specialist of modern and contemporary African arts, Colard is a professor at Rutgers University-Newark.

Drawn from the extraordinary holdings of The Walther Collection, The Way She Looks revisits the history of African photographic portraiture through the perspectives of women, both as sitters and photographers.

Colard spoke about the gallery and picked apart a few photos for the interviewer and the audience that listened intently.

One photo Colard spoke about that stuck out to me the most is titled, “Saturday Morning at the Hypermarket: Semi-final of the Miss Lovely Legs Competition,” from the series In Boksburg 1980 by David Goldblatt.

The black and white photo is of four white women that are standing in swimsuits waiting to be judged on their legs. In the foreground of the photo, there are black and white people, yet their expressions are very different. Two black persons in the crowd behind the four models are crossing their arms and have an unimpressed gaze.

The contrast in this photo really spoke to me because of the way the standard of beauty has evolved in society. In the past, white, slender women were seen as the only example of beauty.

Today, we have fashion lines and make up brands that specifically cater to changing the narrative of beauty. For example, Fenty Beauty by Rihanna was made for women with darker skin complexions. All skin complexions and body sizes are now being celebrated and promoted in society, which was unforeseeable in the past.

Being in the centre of the gallery with all the photos, I was starstruck by the beauty in the African gaze that the sitters had. The sitter is the model who is posing for the photographer.

Each sitter had their own style, presence and beauty that cannot be emulated. The best part about the exhibit for me was that many of the photographers were African women.

The exhibition features contemporary works by female artists, including Yto Barrada, Jodi Bieber, Lebohang Kganye, Zanele Muholi, Grace Ndiritu, and Nontsikelelo “Lolo” Veleko alongside 1950s studio portraits by such important historical figures as Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta, and nineteenth-century prints, cartes de visite, postcards, and albums.

One element that was used in many of the photos was patterns and textures. Hair was a huge part as it was either focused on or it was being played with by another sitter in the photo.

The patterns that were used were in the background and also on the dresses or outfits that the sitters wore.

The Way She Looks: A History of Female Gazes in African Portraiture Photographs from The Walther Collection is open from September 11^th to December 8^th, 2019 at the Main Gallery and University Gallery at Ryerson Image Centre.

Colard advised the crowd to really spend some time looking and digesting each photo, as the exhibit is not something that can be rushed through.