In dialogue - Aktuelle & Historische Afrikanische Fotografie

Edition POPCAP - APhI Archives

In the framework of Image Afrique'16

Heuberg 24, Basel, Switzerland

3-17 September 2016

The selection of historical photographs in the exhibition, sees itself as a translation services in a visual tradition that is neither straightforward nor necessarily or immediately consistent. The historical photographs are in a dialogue with the images of the POPCAP winners, reflect these images, refer to individual elements in them, respond to an atmosphere that characterizes a whole series, and unite with them in meaning and significance. Some of these dialogues were created in a process that was marked by intuition, others stem from a theoretical and intellectual reflection.

All photographs were taken by African photographers and originate from the holdings of APHI and the website africaphotography.org , which is operated by APhI. They cover a period of over a hundred years; the oldest photograph was made in the 1880s, the most recent in the 1990s. So these historical photographs reflect not only cultural and political changes, but not least those profound technical developments which have marked photography and its practice in this period.