My practice as an artist, researcher and educator builds on a background in documentary photography. It critically engages with present-day effects of 19th and 20th century images and imaginations of ‘Africa’, formulating visual and textual responses to questions on the value and meaning of photographs in and for different heritage communities in Europe and Africa. The research projects I initiated are explicitly open-ended endeavors that study photographs made in particular contexts and related to situated historiographies through collective making.
One of these ongoing activities is the activation of the photographic legacy of Paul Julien (1901-2001), a Dutch author who – with his widely distributed stories and the photographs connected to them – responded and contributed to dominant 20th century imaginations of Africa for a west-European Audience.
Another one is the platform History in Progress Uganda (HiPUganda), initiated and run together with Ugandan artist R. Canon Griffin. We digitize collections of photographs relevant to the historiography of Uganda, activate these collections in our respective practices, and invite other interested makers to join us. Ongoing efforts within HiPUganda include the activation of the legacies of Ham Mukasa (ca.1870-1956), and Kaddu Wasswa (1933), as well as a collection of botanical photographs produced between 1908 and 1926 that was bought online and appears to have been produced by a colonial officer named Robert Fyffe.
I am also a senior lecturer and researcher at the BA Photography and the MA Photography & Society of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. I live in Rotterdam (NL) and, whenever possible, in Kampala (UG).
I wish there was colour, I wish there was sound. Visual conversations in and on Africa.
Tentoonstelling, vergezeld van publicatie, die uitkomsten toont van 12 jaar artistiek onderzoek naar beeldvorming van 'Afrika', door middel van het activeren van de fotografische nalatenschap van Paul Julien (1901-2001)