Photography and American Coloniality: Eliot Elisofon in Africa, 1942–1972

Description

This book is the first to question both why and how the colonialist mythologies represented by the work of photographer Eliot Elisofon persist. It documents and discusses a heterogeneous practice of American coloniality of power as it explores Elisofon’s career as war photographer-correspondent and staff photographer for LIFE, filmmaker, author, artist, and collector of “primitive art” and sculpture. It focuses on three areas: Elisofon’s narcissism, voyeurism, and sexism; his involvement in the homogenizing of Western social orders and colonial legacies; and his enthused mission of “sending home” a mass of still-life photographs, annexed African artifacts, and assumed vintage knowledge. The book does not challenge his artistic merit or his fascinating personality; what it does question is his production and imagining of “difference.” As the text travels from World War II to colonialism, postcolonialism, and the Cold War, from Casablanca to Leopoldville (Kinshasa), it proves to be a necessarily strenuous and provocative trip. Raoul J. Granqvist is Professor Emeritus of English at the Department of Language Studies, Umeå University. Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. En Route from Scandinavia to Africa, 1942-1944: On Becoming a Trickster with a Hungry Camera and a Loud Mouth -- Chapter 2. Colonial Travel and Colonial Habits: Early Years, Elisofon in Africa, 1947 and 1951 -- Chapter 3. African Women Walk, African Men Sit, African Children Are: Gender as Difference, Exclusion, Segregation, and Passage -- Chapter 4. From Colony to Colonized: Elisofon Fashioning Nigeria -- Chapter 5. Elisofon's and LIFE's Literary Africa: White Mythologies, Racism, and Cold War Politics -- Chapter 6. The American Broadcasting Company's Africa, 1966-1967: A Shock of Change and an Updated Safari -- Chapter 7. The Cold War Affinity between Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko and the United States' Eliot Elisofon -- Chapter 8. The Politics of the Black African Heritage Series, 1970-1972 -- Chapter 9. Elisofon Collecting Artifacts and Elisofon Curated: Colonialist Power -- Conclusion -- Appendix. LIFE Photo Essays by or with Eliot Elisofon -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index