Framing Colonial Photography in West Africa

The 'impact' initiative arising from the research project entitled ‘Framing Colonial Photography in West Africa’ took a selection of  Henri Gaden's photographic collection out into the public domain via exhibitions and lectures first in St Andrews, then in Aix-en-Provence (where most of his images are lodged in the National Archives, ANOM), and finally in St Louis, Senegal (the city in which Gaden spent the last 30 years of his life, where he is buried, and whose community retain memories of him as a significant figure for the indigenous as well as the European population). Under its English title 'Encountering Africa: Henri Gaden's Life and Photography in Colonial French West Africa, 1894-1939', the exhibition was mounted at the University of St Andrews Laidlaw Museum from October 2017 to February 2018, and under its the French title 'Une vie en Afrique: Henri Gaden, officier et photographe, 1894-1939', it was mounted at Les Archives nationales d'outre-mer (Aix-en-Provence, France) from May to June 2018, and then at Le Centre des recherches et documentation du Sénégal (Saint-Louis, Sénégal) from November to December 2018.

In collaboration with Les Archives Nationales, France a large-format, high-quality book of Gaden's photographs was published by Somogy, Paris in 2018 with accompanying bilingual text and analysis. The question of the framing of Gaden's photographs addresses and contests the way in which photographic images have conventionally been used to crystallise the divide between coloniser and colonised. Gaden's corpus helps to undermine that dichotomy and to expose more complex patterns of social interaction and cultural exchange within the space or 'contact zones' of colonialism. 

After the close of the exhibition in Saint Louis in December 2018, all the exhibited materials were left in the town in the care of 'Entre'vues', an organisation dedicated to preserving the Saint-Louisien patrimony. It will be used again for community-based events, and will form part of a travelling exhibition around Senegal.

Grants to support underpinning research:

2014 – University of Konstanz: €9,000

2015 – Carnegie Grant for a 6-week archival research trip in France: £2,310

2018 – to mount exhibitions in France and Senegal: £5,356