Africa in the West’s eyes has stereotypically been seen through the gaze of Afro-pessimism, only seeing Africa has a place of disease, famine, war, and essentially primitive, and static. Through this gaze the west has sought out “primitive man” as an exotic, sensationalized idea that fits conveniently into the dramatic documentary work of many western photographers, such as Kevin Carter’s work with Sudanese famine victims and Steve Mcurry’s work with National Geographic. These sensationalized images play into the idea that Africa exists in a stagnant state, never evolving, and therefore not existing in the same modern context as the west. Moyo Okediji refutes these Afro-Pessimistic views vehemently; in his essay Les Demoiselles D'Avingnon, MamiWata, and African Modernity he states” The artistic object in Africa is constantly evolving with unpredictable volatility, because society is always mutating and no identity is static or permanently determined in its interpretive potential.” Moyo Okediji also takes this a step further, not just denouncing the ridiculous views of Afro-pessimist view, he evokes the theory of Al Jabara to heal the injustices and inequities of representation. These theories of balance, healing and evolving identity relate closely to the work of contemporary African Photographers. They are currently analyzing their constantly changing identity, and balancing the sensationalized and shallow techniques of representation the West deploys, by creating Anti-photogenic works, that are personal, humanistic in their approach and a direct rejection of Western techniques, that over sensationalize, primitivism and ultimately create a commodity out of Africa. Contemporary African photographers are deploying the theories Okediji sets in motion of Al jarbara, and inspired by Okediji's Mami Wata, they seek to balance out the vast collection of Afro-pessimistic work of the West, with photographic works that reject western techniques, and depict a dynamic, evolving, vital Africa, that seeks to balance out the illustrative Western view, with a realistic and humanistic view.
Images of starving children, famished victims, nude figures are the stereotypical images that Western eyes have seen. These type of images are a well established doctrine that many popular photographers seek out when they are "documenting" Africa. Photographers such as, Kevin Carter, who's images of Sudanese famine victims graced the front page of the New York Times, Steven Mccurry, who photographs for National Geographic, and has some of the most iconic images ever produced of Africa, and Leni Riefenstahl, who's admirer's included people such as Jane Goodall and Louis Leakey. These people are well established, highly admired Western photographers, how blatantly sell stereotypes of Africa that dehumanize and misinform. Leni Riefenstahl's African photographs are [considered] intrusive, obscene and encourage only spectacle." (138, Faris) by many people. She turned potential photographic subjects away if they showed up to her studio wearing clothes, and denied monetary payment to her models and instead paid in beads and oil. While her photographs were highly admired in the West, they are complete fabrications of a life that does not exist in Africa, and were sold to the West as documentary photography. Kevin Carter and Steve Mcurry's work also feeds in to this spectacle type photography. Carter's images are dehumanizing depictions of starving children, taken out of cultural context, they depict a brutal Sudanese world, while Mcurry's lens captures an exotic, primitive view of Africa. Rienfenstahl [Carter, and Mcurry's] African Photographer is revealing of a more profoundly disturbing feature characteristic of much modernist Wester Photographic practice. especially involving non-westerners." (141, Faris)
"Western critics have questioned the validity of contemporary African Art, to the extent of considering the notion of Black modernity as an oxymoron." (55, Okediji) These critics fail to realize that Africa changes and adapts to the same modern world that the West lives in. They fail to realize that Africa has participated in some of the same image making techniques

Africa in the West’s eyes has stereotypically been seen through the gaze of Afro-pessimism, only seeing Africa has a place of disease, famine, war, and essentially primitive, and static. Through this gaze the west has sought out “primitive man” as an exotic, sensationalized idea that fits conveniently into the dramatic documentary work of many western photographers, such as Kevin Carter’s work with Sudanese famine victims and Steve Mcurry’s work with National Geographic. These sensationalized images play into the idea that Africa exists in a stagnant state, never evolving, and therefore not existing in the same modern context as the west. Moyo Okediji refutes these Afro-Pessimistic views vehemently; in his essay Les Demoiselles D'Avingnon, MamiWata, and African Modernity he states” The artistic object in Africa is constantly evolving with unpredictable volatility, because society is always mutating and no identity is static or permanently determined in its interpretive potential.” Moyo Okediji also takes this a step further, not just denouncing the ridiculous views of Afro-pessimist view, he evokes the theory of Al Jabara to heal the injustices and inequities of representation. These theories of balance, healing and evolving identity relate closely to the work of contemporary African Photographers. They are currently analyzing their constantly changing identity, and balancing the sensationalized and shallow techniques of representation the West deploys, by creating Anti-photogenic works, that are personal, humanistic in their approach and a direct rejection of Western techniques, that over sensationalize, primitivism and ultimately create a commodity out of Africa. Contemporary African photographers are deploying the theories Okediji sets in motion of Al jarbara, seeking to balance out the vast collection of Afro-pessimistic work of the West, with photographic works that reject western techniques, and depict a dynamic, evolving, vital Africa, that seeks to balance out the illustrative Western view, with a realistic and humanistic view.
Images of starving children, famished victims, nude figures are the stereotypical images that Western eyes have seen. These type of images are a well established doctrine that many popular photographers seek out when they are "documenting" Africa. Photographers such as, Kevin Carter, who's images of Sudanese famine victims graced the front page of the New York Times, Steven Mccurry, who photographs for National Geographic, and has some of the most iconic images ever produced of Africa, and Leni Riefenstahl, who's admirer's included people such as Jane Goodall and Louis Leakey. These people are well established, highly admired Western photographers, how blatantly sell stereotypes of Africa that dehumanize and misinform. Leni Riefenstahl's African photographs are [considered] intrusive, obscene and encourage only spectacle." (138, Faris) by many people. She turned potential photographic subjects away if they showed up to her studio wearing clothes, and denied monetary payment to her models and instead paid in beads and oil. While her photographs were highly admired in the West, they are complete fabrications of a life that does not exist in Africa, and were sold to the West as documentary photography. Kevin Carter and Steve Mcurry's work also feeds in to this spectacle type photography. Carter's images are dehumanizing depictions of starving children, taken out of cultural context, they depict a brutal Sudanese world, while Mcurry's lens captures an exotic, primitive view of Africa. Rienfenstahl [Carter, and Mcurry's] African Photographer is revealing of a more profoundly disturbing feature characteristic of much modernist Wester Photographic practice. especially involving non-westerners." (141, Faris)
"Western critics have questioned the validity of contemporary African Art, to the extent of considering the notion of Black modernity as an oxymoron." (55, Okediji) These critics fail to realize that Africa changes and adapts to the same modern world that the West lives in. They fail to realize that Africa has participated in some of the same image making techniques

http://www.opendemocracy.net/content/articles/3730/images/african_photography.swf

Africa in the West’s eyes has stereotypically been seen through the gaze of Afro-pessimism, only seeing Africa has a place of disease, famine, war, and essentially primitive, and static. Through this gaze the west has sought out “primitive man” as an exotic, sensationalized idea that fits conveniently into the dramatic documentary work of many western photographers, such as Kevin Carter’s work with Sudanese famine victims and Steve Mcurry’s work with National Geographic. These sensationalized images play into the idea that Africa exists in a stagnant state, never evolving, and therefore not existing in the same modern context as the west. Moyo Okediji refutes these Afro-Pessimistic views vehemently; he states” The artistic object in Africa is constantly evolving with unpredictable volatility, because society is always mutating and no identity is static or permanently determined in its interpretive potential.” Moyo Okediji also takes this a step further, not just denouncing the ridiculous views of Afro-pessimist view, he evokes the theory of Al Jabara to heal the injustices and inequities of representation. These theories of balance, healing and evolving identity relate closely to the work of contemporary African Photographers. They are currently analyzing their constantly changing identity, and balancing the sensationalized and shallow techniques of representation the West deploys, by creating Anti-photogenic works, that are personal, humanistic in their approach and a direct rejection of Western techniques, that over sensationalize, primitivism and ultimately create a commodity out of Africa. Contemporary African photographers are deploying the theories Okediji sets in motion of Al jarbara, seeking to balance out the vast collection of Afro-pessimistic work of the West, with photographic works that reject western techniques, and depict a dynamic, evolving, vital Africa, that seeks to balance out the illustrative Western view, with a realistic and humanistic view.



Paragraph one

Western problems of depicting Africa: Steven Mcurry, Leni riestahl, Kevin Carter


Paragraph two
Early African Photographers and how they differ from previous photography of the west:
Sedou Keita, Sidebe
Humanistic, honorable, seeing African life as it exists and allowing the people in the photos to be the subject not the heroric acts of the photographers, or the exotic content that stripes Africans of individual identity and makes them alien.



Paragraph Three
How photographers are seeking balance to stereotypes, Moyo Okediji talks about algebra and how it is an African theory, that seeks to heal broken bones, to bring balance, and how the work of these photographers are doing that. They are exploring their culture, their post colonial identity, and bring just images to the surface. They ultimately become artists of Mami Wata that travel globally to show an African View of Africa. Reference Enwezor and his tools of anti photogentic eye and how they seek balance to the over sensationalized eye of the west. How it is more humanistic in its approach and
This needs to be a very long paragraph or several paragraphs, this is the meat of my argument and my paper, everything after this is the research that supports my theories.

Paragraph 4
Adrew Dosunmu and Nontiskeolo Veloko south African photographers that use fashion photograph to celebrate a post apartheid identity

Paragraphc 5
Colonial tension and the the artists that reflect upon the past. Allan deSouza, Zarina Bhimji, Otobong Nkanga

Paragraph 6
Guy Tillman bring insome stuff from grey areas. Communites have every right to be suspicious of outsiders. Talks about the sensitivity needed to photograph subjects where you are an outsider.

Paragraph 7 Conclusion

Kerry Brown

Paris, je t'aime: David (Peter Sarsgaard, right) has just the sort of savoir-faire to charm Mulligan's quick-witted Jenny, who's eager to leave the suburbs behind for more cosmopolitan pleasures.



Life studies: A 16-year-old schoolgirl (Carey Mulligan, center) learns hard lessons — but also discovers a thing or two about the value of experience — as she navigates an affair with an older man.

Cross Processing

Cross processing (sometimes abbreviated to Xpro) is the procedure of deliberately processing photographic film in a chemical solution intended for a different type of film. The effect was discovered independently by many different photographers often by mistake in the days of C-22 and E-4 . The process is seen most often in fashion advertising and band photography, and in more recent years has become more synonymous with the Lomography movement.

Cross processing usually involves one of the two following methods:

* Processing positive color reversal film in C-41 chemicals, resulting in a negative image on a colorless base
* Processing negative color print film in E-6 chemicals, resulting in a positive image but with the orange base of a normally processed color negative