The critical study of photography in East Africa is particularly limited when compared to other regions (Haney 2010, Landau and Kaspin 2002). The key ongoing contribution made by photographers of Asian descent, who are part of the South Asian diaspora that arrived in East Africa from the early nineteenth century onwards,1 has been especially under-studied. Links between Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and East Africa have existed via Indian Ocean trade networks for at least two millennia (Delf 1963:1–4, Ghai and Ghai 1970:1–14, Gregory 1993:9–42, Hourani and Carswell 1995). This article seeks to go beyond what Enwezor and Zaya (cited in Haney 2010:6–12) describe as “the visual fictions of the African continent” and offer some accounts of photographers of Asian descent that provide compelling counternarratives. By presenting the works and biographies of photographers of Asian diasporas in East Africa, I endeavor...
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Fall 2015
September 01 2015
From the Studio to the Front-line: The Emergence, Development, and Impact of Asian Photographers in Colonial and Independent East Africa
Nasira Sheikh-Miller
Nasira Sheikh-Miller
Nasira Sheikh-Miller is Head of Learning Projects at Qatar Museums in Doha. She has worked in the culture sector both internationally and in London. She completed her MA in the History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS in 2012, specializing in Islamic and African Art. Her research interests include photography in Africa, art and society in East and South Africa, the Indian Ocean Littoral, Fatimid art, Ottoman art, and Islam and the West.
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Nasira Sheikh-Miller
Nasira Sheikh-Miller is Head of Learning Projects at Qatar Museums in Doha. She has worked in the culture sector both internationally and in London. She completed her MA in the History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS in 2012, specializing in Islamic and African Art. Her research interests include photography in Africa, art and society in East and South Africa, the Indian Ocean Littoral, Fatimid art, Ottoman art, and Islam and the West.
Online ISSN: 1937-2108
Print ISSN: 0001-9933
© 2015 by the Regents of the University of California.
2015
African Arts (2015) 48 (3): 38–47.
Citation
Nasira Sheikh-Miller; From the Studio to the Front-line: The Emergence, Development, and Impact of Asian Photographers in Colonial and Independent East Africa. African Arts 2015; 48 (3): 38–47. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/AFAR_a_00237
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