A Brief History of Photography
The invention of photography was announced in 1839, with two dominant processes emerging simultaneously. In France, Louis Daguerre publicized the daguerreotype, which produced unique, highly detailed images on polished silver plates. In England, William Henry Fox Talbot patented the calotype, a negative-positive process on paper that allowed for the creation of multiple prints from a single exposure. This foundational principle of reproduction became the cornerstone of all future photography. The late 19th century saw rapid democratization with George Eastman’s 1888 Kodak camera and roll film, putting photography into the hands of the public. The medium’s role expanded from scientific tool and portrait medium to a powerful force in social documentation, journalism, and, through pioneers like Alfred Stieglitz, a recognized form of fine art.
The earliest reliably dated photograph of people, View of the Boulevard du Temple was taken by Daguerre one spring morning in 1837 or 1838 from the window of the Diorama
The Rise of the Photobook as Artistic Statement
While early photography books were often scientific records or portfolios, the 20th century established the photobook as a deliberate artistic and narrative form. It became a curated sequence where the whole surpassed the sum of its parts. Landmark publications like Walker Evans’s American Photographs (1938) and Robert Frank’s The Americans (1958) demonstrated how the edit, sequencing, and pairing of images within the book’s architecture could create a nuanced, critical portrait of a society. This concept elevated the photobook from a mere collection of reproductions to an autonomous creative work, equivalent in intention to a film or novel, where the photographer controls the viewer’s journey and interpretation.
Walker Evans’s American Photographs (1938)
Robert Frank’s The Americans (1958)
Early Photography in Africa: Dual Legacies
Photography arrived in Africa soon after its invention, carried by colonial officials, missionaries, and itinerant studio photographers. A significant and parallel narrative emerged with the establishment of early studios run by figures like the Lutterodt family on the Gold Coast. While colonial powers frequently used photography for anthropological classification and administrative control, African studio photographers and their clients actively employed the medium for self-representation and modernity. These portraits were carefully posed, often with props signaling status and aspiration, asserted individual and communal identity, creating a powerful counter-archive to the colonial gaze.
Early photographs from 1880's by the Lutterodt Photographers in Gold Coast (modern day Ghana)
Antoine Freitas, Congo, 1939
1. Belgian colonial administrators and Tetela chief, near Lusambo. Circa 1915 Belgian Congo by Emile E.O. Gorlia 2. Paul Schebesta, Congo, 1930
Photobooks and the African Continent: From Nation-Building to Global Stage
The photobook in Africa became a crucial instrument for post-colonial expression and cultural reclamation in the mid‑20th century. State-published books following independence, such as Mali (1963) featuring the work of Seydou Keïta, served as visual ambassadors for new nations, presenting sophisticated, modern identities to the world. This period helped bring seminal African photographic perspectives to an international audience, setting the stage for the global recognition of artists like Malick Sidibé and later, Samuel Fosso.
Some examples of photobooks about Africa
Mirella Ricciadi’s Vanishing Africa collection
Mirella Ricciardi's Vanishing Africa is a profoundly beautiful yet ethically complicated visual document. Published in 1971, the photobook presents a series of stunning, high-contrast portraits and scenes from East Africa, primarily of the Maasai, Samburu, and other communities. The images are undeniably masterful in their composition, resembling classical sculpture or fashion photography in their dramatic lighting and careful staging. However, the book’s very title and overarching narrative frame this beauty within a problematic elegy. It promotes a vision of a pristine, "timeless" Africa on the brink of disappearance, a perspective that aligns with colonial-era nostalgia and the salvage paradigm, which often served to freeze cultures in an imagined past while obscuring their dynamism and contemporaneity.
On one hand, the images can be criticized for its romantic exoticism, created for Western eyes and perpetuating the trope of the "noble savage" untouched by modernity. On the other, Ricciardi’s intimate access and evident reverence for her subjects distinguish her work from more detached colonial anthropology. The portraits often convey a powerful sense of individual dignity and grace.
A spread from Mirella Ricciadi’s Vanishing Africa photobook
Lake Turkana, a vast jade sea in the Kenyan desert, is a life-giving yet fragile heart for the pastoral and fishing communities along its shores. Its survival is inextricably linked to the cultural survival of the ethnicities who define themselves by its rhythms and resources
Fishermen and their implements are depicted not as dominating nature, but as participants in a delicate, ancient pact with the lake’s moods and resources. Their teamwork and traditional methods symbolize a vanishing knowledge system which is a holistic understanding of wind, water, and fish behavior that stands in silent contrast to industrialized extraction. The lake is not only the lifeblood of their culture, but also, given the book’s title, a mirror of fragility and a receding stage upon which a timeless drama is being performed in time.
The fishermen, silhouetted against the vast, luminous expanse of Lake Turkana, become figures of resilience and adaptation, yet their scale against the harsh environment also underscores their profound vulnerability. Within Ricciardi’s framed narrative, they metaphorically “catch” the past, presenting it to the viewer, even as the future of that practice remains uncertain. The image is thus an elegy for a sustainable harmony with nature, poised on the edge of irreversible change.
The “Samburu Woman” is symbol of beauty and pride. Beads are adorned around the neck and head. Women play a vital role in society by helping with the upkeep of the home and raising children. The stance in the image is one of presence and quiet confidence. It is less about the woman as a contemporary individual and more about her role as a keeper of a heritage portrayed as fragile yet enduring.
