Diaspora, Identity, and Representation in Non- Figurative African Photography

African photography has long been closely linked to portraiture, initially in the way that it was used as an ethnographic tool during the colonial period and eventually as a means of visual identity-building and self-fashioning in studio photography when Africans appropriated the form and decided to use it for themselves. It can be argued that portraiture, in its ability for representation, perhaps lends itself to photography that is linked to identity politics. However, by looking at the works of three artists, Edson Chagas, Francois-Xavier Gbré, and Mame-Diarra Niang, this essay looks at the ways in which these African photographers approach issues of identity and diaspora without using the portrait, but rather by interrogating the form of photography itself, and its relation to the photographer’s subjectivity. These three artists all photograph various African cities, specifically Luanda, Abidjan, and Dakar, from their own distinct diasporic viewpoints, whether as returnees or as visitors to their parents’ hometowns. By doing this, they propose a new direction for diasporic African photography, one in which the fragmented form of the images can speak to the hybridity of their identities. Thus, this essay aims to interrogate the idea that portraiture is the only way in which the African experience can be accurately represented. By looking at the work of three contemporary photographers, I will examine the way they bring their own experiences and subjectivities to the non-figurative and imbue it with a renewed sense of identity.