History of photography in Sudan
Photography in Sudan
refers to both
historical
as well as to
contemporary
photographs
taken in the
cultural history
of today's
Republic of the Sudan
. This includes the former territory of present-day
South Sudan
, as well as what was once
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
, and some of the oldest photographs from the 1860s, taken during the
Turkish-Egyptian rule
(Turkiyya). As in other countries, the growing importance of
photography
for
mass media
like newspapers, as well as for
amateur photographers
has led to a wider photographic documentation and
use of photographs
in Sudan during the 20th century and beyond. In the 21st century, photography in Sudan has undergone important changes, mainly due to
digital photography
and distribution through
social media
and the Internet.
[1]
After the earliest periods in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, for which only foreign photographers have been credited with photographs or
films of life in Sudan
,
[2]
indigenous
photographers like
Gadalla Gubara
[3]
or
Rashid Mahdi
[4]
added their own visions to the photographic inventory of the country from the 1950s onwards.
[5]
In 2017, the Sudan Historical Photography Archive in
Khartoum
started to build a visual inventory of everyday life from
Sudan's independence
in 1956 until the early 1980s.
[6]
As documented in the comprehensive exhibition at the
Sharjah Art Foundation
on "The making of the modern art movement in Sudan", this period also includes Gubara and Mahdi as
photographic artists
during the country's prolific period for
modern art
.
[5]
Since the end of
World War II
, professional photographers travelling the world, such as British
photojournalist
George Rodger
, German filmmaker
Leni Riefenstahl
or photographer
Sebastiao Salgado
from Brazil have created
photographic stories
of rural
ethnic groups
in southern Sudan that became famous in the history of photography in Sudan.
[note 1]
More recently, developments in
tourism
, global demand for photographs in mass media and the
digital media
of the 21st century have allowed an increasing number of Sudanese and foreign photographers to closely observe and record life in Sudan.
Colonial period ? from pictures of 'natives' to real people
[
edit
]
Early foreign photographers
[
edit
]
The earliest existing photographs from Sudan were taken from the late 1840s onwards by French, British, Austrian or other foreign photographers and served as documents of life in Africa or the
colonial enterprise
. Among other archives, the digital collections of the
New York Public Library
have a number of such early photographs taken in the Sudan.
[7]
An archive of several thousand photographs, mainly taken by British officials and visitors during the years from 1899 and up to the 1950s, is kept at the
Sudan Archive
at Durham University in the UK.
[note 2]
The same university also holds several other archives of British colonial officers, including photographs from various cities and regions of Sudan, with an online catalogue.
[8]
Following his travels to
Upper Egypt
, Eastern Sudan and Ethiopia in 1847?1848, French photographer and author of scientific and
ethnographic
publications
Pierre Tremaux
[9]
published the second volume of his
Voyage en Ethiopie, au Soudan Oriental et dans la Nigritie
, dedicated to Sudan in 1862, including prints made from his photographs of people of
Darfur
,
Sennar
or the
Nuba mountains
.
[10]
In the 1880s, the Austrian explorer and photographer
Richard Buchta
published several books in
German
about his travels along the
Nile
, including a large number of photographs of ethnic people in southern Sudan.
[note 3]
At the turn of 1884/85, the Italian-British photographer
Felice Beato
documented the unsuccessful
Nile Expedition
of the
British Army
that came to the aid of
Charles George Gordon
at Khartoum, who was besieged by
Mahdist
forces.
[note 4]
Following the short-lived
Mahdist State
, the
Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan
provided new opportunities for photographs of British military and civilian officials. At that time, the
early technology of photography
was extremely difficult and expensive to use, as
large format
cameras
and
glass plates
were used.
[note 5]
Accompanying the Anglo-Egyptian re-conquest of Sudan from 1896 to 1898, war correspondent
Francis Gregson
documented both the advance of British troops and the victory of
Lord Kitchener
's troops over the
Mahdist
forces in
Khartoum 1898
, his album of 232
silver gelatin
print photographs.
[11]
Among other photographs of defeated Sudanese, this includes a photograph of the commander at the
Battle of Atbara
,
Emir
Mahmoud, as a
prisoner of war
.
[12]
In 1912?1913, new
photographic technology
in Sudan was used for
aerial photography
in
archaeology
, when British
entrepreneur
and amateur
archaeologist
Sir Henry Wellcome
applied his automatic kite trolley aerial camera device during excavations at
Jebel Moya
, which was documented by several other photographs on this archaeological campaign.
[13]
[note 6]
Between 1926 and 1936, the British anthropologist
E.E. Evans-Pritchard
took thousands of photographs during his anthropological fieldwork in southern Sudan. About 2500 of his images, mainly showing the life of the
Azande
,
Moro
,
Ingessana
,
Nuer
and
Bongo
peoples are in the collection of the
Pitt Rivers Museum
, with many of them published online.
[14]
Documenting the military activities of the
Anglo-Egyptian condominium
, photographs of soldiers and other military scenes, like the inspection of the
Sudan Defense Force
Guard of Honour, were taken during 1925 and 1955 and later collected in archives in the
United Kingdom
.
[15]
A critical appreciation of these early non-Sudanese photographers and their interest in exotic images of Sudan is expressed in the following quote by Danish researcher Elsa Yvanez:
[16]
In Sudan, many photographs have been produced by British citizens posted in Khartoum and elsewhere during the Anglo-Egyptian condominium (1899?1956). As thousands of other Europeans through the colonial empires, the British directed their cameras to the "typical scenes" of Sudanese life: open-air markets, views of the Nile, fishing scenes, wild and natural landscapes and, above all else, the Sudanese people themselves. Many of these photographs where then edited as postcards (notably by the Gordon Stationary and Bookstores in Khartoum). Circulating through the colonies, Europe, and America, these pictures form an evocative, exotic and fascinating portrait of the Sudanese people.
?
Elsa Yvanez,
Sudanese Clothing through the Modern Lens
Hugo Bernatzik's ethnographic photographs and book
[
edit
]
In 1927, Austrian photographer and travel writer
Hugo Bernatzik
travelled by boat and his own automobile to southern Sudan. He returned with 1,400 photographs and 30,000 ft. of cinema film
[17]
and published his impressions and ethnographic pictures of
Shilluk
,
Nuer
and
Nuba people
in 1930 in a popular
travelogue
, first in
German
and later in English titled
Gari Gari: The Call of the African Wilderness
(1936). Thus, exotic images and descriptions of ethnic life in remote areas of southern Sudan became known to European audiences and were later followed by photo stories by George Rodger and Leni Riefenstahl.
[18]
George Rodger's photographs of the Nuba and Latuka
[
edit
]
A professional photojournalist, interested in traditional lifestyles in Africa, was
George Rodger
, a founding member of
Magnum Photos
.
[19]
His photographs were taken in 1948 and 1949 of
indigenous people
of the Nuba mountains in the Sudanese province of
Kordofan
as well as of the
Latuka
and other peoples of southern Sudan. In the introduction to the book
Nuba and Latuka. The colour photographs
, they were called "some of the most historically important and influential images taken in sub-Saharan Africa during the twentieth century."
[20]
As Rodger wrote several years later, "When we came to leave the Nuba Jebels (mountains), we took with us only memories of a people ... so much more hospitable, chivalrous and gracious than many of us who live in the 'Dark Continents' outside Africa."
[21]
In 1951, Rodger published his
photo essay
of this journey in
National Geographic
.
[22]
In the 1960s, his pictures prompted controversial German photographer and filmmaker
Leni Riefenstahl
to travel to the Nuba mountains for her own photo stories on the
Nuba people
.
[23]
The first Sudanese photographers
[
edit
]
As far as has been documented, one of the first professional Sudanese photographers and film
cameramen
was
Gadalla Gubara
, a pioneer of cinema in Sudan and Africa at large.
[24]
[25]
During and after the
Second World War
, he filmed and photographed many current events, one of them being the raising of the
Sudanese flag
on the Day of
Independence
.
[note 7]
Another early Sudanese photographer was the self-taught photographer
Rashid Mahdi
.
[note 8]
[26]
The French photographer
Claude Iverne
[
fr
]
, who also created his own photo stories in Sudan,
[27]
[28]
called Rashid Mahdi "certainly the most sophisticated and one of the major African photographers of the XXth century". On his webpage, which claims to present a collection of about 12.000 digitized images from 1890 up to 2015,
[29]
Iverne has published many photographs by Rashid Mahdi, both in Inverne's own collection, as well as in the
Musee du quai Branly
in Paris.
[30]
Commenting on the important change of
representation
in photographs of Africans in cities during the 1930s, the authors of the article
An outline history of photography in Africa to ca. 1940
, David Killingray and
Andrew Roberts
, have called this change "a shift to pictures of people, not 'natives
'
".
[31]
Post-independence (1956?2010)
[
edit
]
The Golden Years of photography (1950s?1980s)
[
edit
]
The years before Sudan's independence in 1956 and up to the 1980s have been described as a prolific period for cultural life in Sudan, "including literature, music, and theatre to visual and performing arts".
[32]
Many Sudanese photographers of this important era are presented with a short biography and pictures on the website of the French photo archive
Elnour
.
[33]
The photographers described include Rashid Mahdi, Abbas Habiballah,
[34]
Fouad Hamza Tibin,
[35]
Mohamed Yahia Issa
[36]
and others. In an interview about his research in Sudan, Claude Inverne talked about this era of photography in Sudan.
[37]
Photographs by Gadalla Gubara and Rashid Mahdi were included in the exhibition at the
Sharjah Art Foundation
titled "The making of the modern art movement in Sudan" in 2017.
[5]
At the 6th
African Photography Encounters
held in
Bamako
in 2005, Sudan gained international recognition, when it was featured with a number of photographers active from 1935 to 2002.
[38]
[39]
Riefenstahl's photo books on the Nuba peoples
[
edit
]
Riefenstahl travelled to the Nuba mountains in the 1960s and 1970s when she was over 60. On her return she published her colour images of Nuba people in traditional settings in two books titled
Die Nuba
(
The Last of the Nuba
) and
Die Nuba von Kau
(
The People of Kau
). For some of her photographs and film scenes, she relied on Sudanese cameraman Gadalla Gubara, who accompanied her to the Nuba mountains.
[40]
Both photo books became international
bestsellers
and attracted much attention to the archaic lifestyle of these ethnic groups.
[41]
A critical reaction to Riefenstahl's photography of the Nuba came from the American writer
Susan Sontag
. Based on Riefenstahl's fascination with strong, healthy bodies and her 1930s propaganda films for the
government of Nazi Germany
, Sontag scrutinized the "fascist aesthetics" of these photo books in her essay 'Fascinating fascism'. Writing in the
New York Review of Books
in 1975, she stated: "The fascist dramaturgy centers on the orgiastic transactions between mighty forces and their puppets." This kind of criticism of the foreigner's view and interpretation of archaic African lifestyles was further elaborated in her collection of essays
On Photography
, where Sontag argues that the proliferation of photographic images had begun to establish a "chronic voyeuristic relation" of the viewers to the subjects portrayed.
[42]
Further, the German media critic
Rainer Rother
wrote "Riefenstahl viewed [the Nuba] as potential models and scanned the world before her eyes for spectacular images. Photography became something intrusive, a form of hunting."
[43]
Travel photography and photojournalism
[
edit
]
With the rise of
colour photography
,
coffee table books
and
magazines
specialising on lavish photo essays and international
tourism
, various styles of
documentary photography
evolved. In Sudan, this includes photo stories about its historic heritage, such as the
Nubian pyramids
.
[44]
The growing concerns of social repercussions of
travel photography
apply to professionals as well as to tourists and their private,
amateur photography
.
[45]
Culturally inappropriate behaviour of tourists has raised criticism with respect to taking photographs in non-Western countries, and of creating "exotic visions" of foreign cultures.
[46]
Sudan being one of the less visited, but more "exotic" destinations, is no exception to this.
[47]
After having documented the culture of the
Dinka people
in South Sudan since the 1970s, American photographers
Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher
have earned renown for their aesthetically crafted images of the Dinka's ancient ways of cattle raising. Their photo essay is presented online on
Google Arts & Culture
.
[48]
Similar images form part of Brazilian photographer
Sebastiao Salgado
's work depicting archaic lifestyles in Eastern Africa.
[49]
In 2008, Australian photographer
Jack Picone
's published a book of photographs about his trip to the Nuba mountains, with text provided by anthropologist
John Ryle
.
[50]
[51]
As Sudanese have suffered from
forced displacement
,
civil war
or
human trafficking
,
humanitarian crises
have also been covered by photo journalists. UNMIS, the
United Nations Mission in Sudan
for Peacekeeping,
WHO
and
UNICEF
, usually employ their own professional photographers. Sudanese self-trained photographers like Sari Omer have also been employed for this kind of documentary photography, using their cultural knowledge of the populations concerned.
[52]
In 1993, a shocking picture of a child, lying lifeless on the ground, and observed by a
vulture
sitting nearby, was published worldwide as a reminder of the human catastrophe in southern Sudan. The photographer
Kevin Carter
, a South African photojournalist, became known for the picture
The Vulture and the Little Girl
. Carter later said that he was shocked by the situation he had just photographed, and had chased the vulture away.
[note 9]
The following year, Carter won the
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography
for this picture, which had raised concerns about the ethical behaviour of the photographer, who had not tried to help the child.
[53]
[note 10]
The 2010s and beyond
[
edit
]
Digital photography
[
edit
]
Even though there are no institutions for teaching photography in Sudan, the new technical possibilities of
digital photography
,
image editing
and using the Internet for learning about how to take photographs have made it possible for a growing number of Sudanese to train themselves in photography. The spread of affordable
mobile phones
and Internet tariffs have led mostly younger Sudanese to start experimenting with digital cameras or
mobile photography
and to share their pictures or videos on
social media
.
[1]
In 2009, an informal group of aspiring photographers created the
Sudanese Photographers Group
on
Facebook
.
[1]
The idea for this group was to have an easily accessible, virtual place for all interested photographers to meet and share ideas. In 2012, they decided to focus more seriously on the art of photography and found a partner for setting up workshop sessions in the
German cultural centre
in Khartoum. These workshops were conducted by professional photographers, invited from Germany, South Africa or Nigeria and repeated from 2012 to 2017, with assignments and meetings of the photographers in between the workshops. From this training, several photo exhibitions called
Mugran Foto Week
were organized.
[54]
Some of the photographers have been invited to international exhibitions such as the African Photography Encounters in Bamako or have received grants to study abroad. Sudanese photographers like
Ala Kheir
have also been involved with the
Centers of Learning for Photography in Africa (CLPA)
, an independent network whose aim is to facilitate exchange between photographers of curriculum development and teaching methods.
[55]
Commercial challenges and political expression
[
edit
]
A limiting factor for professional photographers in Sudan is the low demand for
commercial photography
. Companies using professional photographs of Sudanese settings are
DAL Group
,
[56]
that promotes Sudanese food products and local traditions,
[57]
as well as
Internet service providers
such as
MTN
[58]
or
Zain
.
[59]
Despite such constraints, Sudanese
freelance
photographers have experimented with
street photography
and
fine-art photography
.
[60]
After the
Sudanese revolution
of 2018/19, new chances for artistic expression, public action or
citizens' involvement
in society have opened up.
[note 11]
An example of photography used to illustrate political participation in Sudan was the smartphone image of the
Kandake of the Sudanese Revolution
, of the student Alaa Salah, taken by amateur photographer Lana Haroun during the 2019 protests.
[61]
Another well-known image of these protests is a photograph by Japanese photographer
Yasuyoshi Chiba
of
Agence France-Presse
, showing a young man in Khartoum reciting protest poetry, while demonstrators chant slogans calling for civilian rule, that was selected as
World Press Photo of the Year
2020.
[62]
[63]
In 2022, an image by Sudanese photographer Faiz Abubakr Mohamed of a woman protestor hurling a
teargas
canister back at riot police during pro-democracy protests in Sudan in 2021 was awarded with the first prize in the "Singles Category for Africa" of the World Press Photo contest.
[64]
In 2022, Ammar Abdallah Osman won the First Place of the East African Photography Awards in the Human Singles category for his portrait
Man with Nobody.
[65]
Contemporary photographers
[
edit
]
Contemporary Sudanese photographers of the 2010s and beyond include professional photojournalists
Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
, who has covered Sudan for
Reuters
for more than 15 years and is also known for his creative fine-art photography,
[66]
and Ashraf Shazly,
[67]
who works for AFP/
Getty Images
in Khartoum.
Other photographers, mainly active in non-commercial photojournalism, such as street photography or documenting cultural life through fashion or other lifestyles, are women photographers Salma Alnour,
[68]
Ola Alsheikh
,
[69]
Suha Barakat,
Eythar Gubara
,
[70]
Metche Jaafar, Duha Mohammed
[71]
or Soleyma Osman, as well as their male colleagues Ahmad Abushakeema,
[72]
Mohamed Altoum
,
[73]
Salih Basheer
, Nagi Elhussain, Hisham Karouri, Ala Kheir,
[74]
Sharaf Mahzoub, Sari Omer, Atif Saad, Muhammad Salah,
[75]
or Wael Al Sanosi aka Wellyce.
[note 12]
Most of them are members of the
Sudanese Photographers Group
, and have been part of Sudan's upcoming generation of photographers since the 2010s.
[76]
In 2021, the French book
Soudan 2019, annee zero
presented a detailed historical and
sociological
documentation and analysis of the weeks during the
Sudanese revolution
that preceded the deadly assault and destruction of the site that protestors had occupied in front of the
headquarters
of the
Armed Forces
in central Khartoum. Part of this documentation of the
Khartoum massacre
are numerous pictures by Sudanese photographers who had documented the uprising until that point in time.
[77]
From July to September 2021, the international photography festival
Rencontres de la photographie
at
Arles
in southern France announced an exhibition on the Sudanese revolution under the title
'Thawra! ???? Revolution!'
. It presented images by some of the Sudanese photographers who contributed to the book
Soudan 2019, annee zero
.
[78]
During this festival,
Eythar Gubara
won the photography award (
Prix de la photo Madame Figaro - Arles
) for her
photo story
"Nothing can stop the
Kandakas
" (title of the queens in ancient Nubia), sponsored by French women's magazine
Madame Figaro
.
[79]
This award entailed a
fashion photo
editorial
by Gubara, published in the magazine's July 2022 edition.
[80]
As a literary reflection about documentary photography of political events, South Sudanese writer
Stella Gaitano
described the intentions of a fictional photographer taking pictures during the Sudanese revolution:
[81]
He was simply doing what he knew how to do well, for the good of the revolution: taking pictures from various locations, photos that inspired enthusiasm, like the picture of that revolutionary woman who picked up a tear-gas grenade and put it back in its launcher. Photos that provoked anger, like the one of several masked agents whipping a child. Photos that triggered both pain and anger, like the one of a martyr falling, covered in blood. Photos that caused disgust, like the one of security personnel raiding homes ? utterly disrespecting the people's sanctuaries ? to look for revolutionaries. Photos that brought smiles, like that of a little girl carried on someone's shoulders, yelling "Down with the regime of killers!"
?
Stella Gaitano, The Rally of the Sixth of April
The Challenge soccer team
, by Metche Jaafar
2023 Postcards from Khartoum
[
edit
]
Following the
2023 armed conflict
in Sudan, Ala Kheir, Ola Alsheikh and other Sudanese photographers started the online project
Postcards from Khartoum
. Amidst the destruction of their cities, thousands of people fleeing the fighting and shortages of food, water and electricity, they have been publishing their pictures and brief commentaries as "an insight to what is going on in their lives since the 16th of April 2023."
[82]
Collections and online archives
[
edit
]
Starting in 2018, the online
archive
and cultural heritage project
Sudan Memory
has been conserving and promoting Sudanese
cultural heritage
both physically in the country itself, as well as since April 2022 through the Internet. Among many other documents, the project's webpage offers access to numerous photographs documenting Sudan's political and cultural history as well as its natural and demographic diversity from the early 1900s to the present.
[83]
The country's largest photographic archive,
Rashid Mahdi
's photo studio in
Atbara
is featured with hundreds of photographs documenting the region's private, public and economic history from the 1940s to 1990s.
Gadalla Gubara
(1920?2008), Sudan's internationally most well-known photographer and filmmaker, is shown working in his studio, and the
street art
of the
2019 Sudanese revolution
is presented through more than 60 images.
[84]
Historical photographs of Sudan are also available online from a number of international collections, such as
Durham University
(photographs and documents),
[85]
Pitt Rivers Museum
, Oxford, (detailed catalogue of
ethnographic
photographs from southern Sudan),
[86]
both of whom are also contributors to Sudan Memory. Further, the
Museum of Ethnology
in
Vienna
presents historical photographs by Richard Buchta, an Austrian explorer and early photographer.
In her
essay
"The Sudanese gaze: Visual memory in post-independence Sudan", Sudanese-American writer Dalia Elhassan discussed the complex relationships that historical photographs and
films from Sudan
play in constructing knowledge about this East African country. Accordingly, both for people like herself, who live in the Sudanese diaspora, as well as for Sudanese at home and of different generations, these images "captured by a Sudanese lens, a Sudanese gaze" relate directly to questions of cultural identity, blackness, history and their perceptions in
Sudanese literature
,
visual arts
and the media.
[87]
While the photographers themselves cannot live on, it is the stories, the visual memories safeguarded in their photographs that remain alive: a time in Sudan that, despite every effort being made to blur it from national consciousness, can sharpen into view upon a single glance of any photograph captured through the Sudanese gaze.
?
Dalia Elhassan, The Sudanese gaze: Visual memory in post-independence Sudan
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Compare, for example, the following quote: "Indeed, probably the best known books of photographs of the Sudan are of the Nuba, Leni Riefenstahl's
The Last of the Nuba
and
People of Kao
..." (pp. 59-60) in
Daly, Martin W.; Hogan, Jane R. (2005).
Images of empire: photographic sources for the British in the Sudan
. Brill.
ISBN
978-90-04-14627-3
.
and the chapter
George Rodgers Koronga Nuba wrestlers of Kordofan, South Sudan, 1949
(pp.18-19) in
McCabe, Eamonn (2005).
The making of great photographs: approaches and techniques of the masters
. David & Charles.
ISBN
978-0-7153-2220-8
.
- ^
In their book,
The Sudan: Photographs from the Sudan Archive
, the authors have published 240 photographs, presenting "events of historical or military significance, feats of engineering, and the daily life and recreation of the Sudanese and their temporary rulers."
Daly, M. W.; Forbes, L. E.; Archive, Durham University Library Sudan (1994).
The Sudan: photographs from the Sudan Archive, Durham University Library
. Garnet Publishing.
ISBN
978-1-873938-94-2
.
- ^
For his publications, see the list in the article on
Richard Buchta
and some of his photographs can be found in Wikimedia Commons under his name.
- ^
In the book
Felice Beato: A photographer on the Eastern Road
, the authors give the following short account:
1885 - Beato travels to the Sudan to photograph the events of the
Mahdist rebellion
against the British, but arrives three months after the major events. On April 30, he meets
Lord [Baron] G.J. Wolseley
onboard ship from
Suez
to
Suakim
. (
sic
) He documents Wolseley's expedition to Suakim to superintend the withdrawal of the troops.
Lacoste, Anne; Beato, Felice; J. Paul Getty Museum (2010).
Felice Beato: A photographer on the Eastern Road
. Getty Publications. p. 186.
ISBN
978-1-60606-035-3
.
- ^
In his article
"Capturing the light of the Nile"
about the earliest photographs taken in Egypt, Jeff Koehler makes the following remarks about the photographic technology of the late 19th century: "The technology continued to improve and diversify, and the paper negatives were soon superseded by glass ones in the
wet-collodion process
that combined the sharpness of
daguerreotypes
with the reproducibility of
calotypes
." See Koehler 2015, in the section 'Further reading'
- ^
The 1905 book by John Ward,
Our Sudan - its pyramids and progress
. J. Murrey, 1905
presents information and photographs on archaeological sites in Sudan around the turn of the century and before.
- ^
Omar Zaki wrote in his article
Sudan: Gadalla Gubara - a Forgotten Filmmaking Legend
: "Gubara and fellow scriptwriter Kamal Ibrahim, were the only cameramen to record Sudan's Independence on January 1st 1956. He captured the symbolic moments when democratically elected Prime Minister
Ismail Al-Azhari
walked from the parliament to the presidential palace and replaced the British and Egyptian flags with the blue, gold, and green flag of Sudan." - See
Zaki, Omar (14 September 2012).
"Sudan: Gadalla Gubara - a forgotten filmmaking legend"
.
All Africa
. Retrieved
13 December
2019
.
- ^
In an article about the exhibition "The Khartoum School: the making of the modern art movement in Sudan (1945?present)" in Sharja, UAE, 2017, the author writes about photography in Sudan:
"The exhibition highlights the work of two pioneer master-photographers, Rashid Mahdi and Gadalla Gubara, as well as other studio photographers, for example, Abbas Habib Alla, Mohamed Yahya Issa, Fouad Hamza Tibin, Osman Hamid Khalifa, Omar Addow, Richard Lokiden Wani and Joua, in the context of the historical linkages between photography, decolonisation and self-representation."
Source:
"The Khartoum School: the making of the modern art movement in Sudan (1945?present)"
.
Sharjah Art Foundation
. Retrieved
24 May
2020
.
- ^
Before taking his plane, Carter told Silva: "You won't believe what I've just shot! … I was shooting this kid on her knees, and then changed my angle, and suddenly there was this vulture right behind her! … And I just kept shooting ? shot lots of film!"
Then Carter told him that he had chased the vulture away. He told Silva he was shocked by the situation he had just photographed, saying, "I see all this, and all I can think of is Megan", his young daughter. A few minutes later, they left Ayod for
Kongor
. - In 2011, the child's father revealed that the child was actually a boy, called Kong Nyong, and had been taken care of by the UN food aid station. Source:
Rojas, Alberto (21 February 2011).
"Kong Nyong, el nino que sobrevivio al buitre = Kong Nyong, The boy who survived the vulture"
.
El Mundo
(in Spanish).
Archived
from the original on 30 June 2017.
- ^
Claiming responsible ethical behaviour of photographers, publishers and the viewers of such photographs of shocking scenes, cultural writer
Susan Sontag
wrote in her essay
Regarding the pain of others
(2003): "There is shame as well as shock in looking at the close-up of a real horror. Perhaps the only people with the right to look at images of suffering of this extreme order are those who could do something to alleviate it … or those who could learn from it. The rest of us are voyeurs, whether or not we mean to be." Source: Susan Sontag,
Regarding the Pain of Others.
New York: Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003
- ^
Ala Kheir, one of the founders of the Sudanese Photographers Group, describes the difficult situation for photographers before the Sudanese revolution like this: "I think in the beginning of the 1990s, a lot of photojournalists took photos of what was happening in the country. The government reacted against those images that they did not want to be shown in the media. That is how the phobia started. This fear is still here, especially after the Arab Spring, as the regime saw what happened in other countries. When we go on a trip to take photographs, it is very common for us to be arrested and taken to the police station. It is not dangerous, but you lose time, they interrogate you. So they make sure you won't be motivated to go out and take photographs."
[1]
- ^
This list is by no means complete, but wants to name some of the most active and visible Sudanese photographers of today. Pictures of most of them can be found on Instagram.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
Diallo, Aicha (29 October 2016).
"Where the White Nile and the Blue Nile meet"
.
Contemporary and
. Retrieved
21 March
2021
.
- ^
Sharkey, Heather J.
(18 March 2003).
Living with colonialism: nationalism and culture in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
. University of California Press. pp. 56?57.
ISBN
978-0-520-23559-5
.
- ^
Iverne, Claude (2015).
"Gadalla Gubara"
.
elnour.org
. Retrieved
27 May
2020
.
- ^
Iverne, Claude (2015).
"About Rashid Mahdi"
.
elnour.org
. Retrieved
27 May
2020
.
- ^
a
b
c
Sharjah Art Foundation (2017).
"The Khartoum school. The making of the modern art movement in Sudan"
.
Sharjah Art Foundation
. Retrieved
24 May
2020
.
- ^
The British Library (17 October 2017).
"Creation of historical photography archive at the history department of Khartoum University"
.
The British Library. Endangered archives programme
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
New York Public Library digital collections.
"
"Sudan photographs"
"
.
digitalcollections.nypl.org
. Retrieved
3 June
2020
.
- ^
Durham University.
"Special collections : The Sudan Archive at Durham"
.
Durham University Library
. Retrieved
25 May
2020
.
- ^
New York Public Library.
"Pierre Tremaux. Photographers' identities catalog"
.
New York public library
. Retrieved
11 March
2021
.
- ^
Tremaux, Pierre.
Voyage en Ethiopie, au Soudan Oriental et dans la Nigritie, Vol. 2: Le Soudan, textes de l'Atlas,
Paris, Hachette 1862. - For a discussion of his photographs, see
Addleman-Frankel, Kate (2018). "The Experience of Elsewhere: Photography in the Travelogues of Pierre Tremaux".
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.
- ^
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.
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.
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
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2022
.
- ^
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Sudanese clothing through the modern lens
"
.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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0016-7398
.
JSTOR
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.
- ^
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.
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.
- ^
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.
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. 2017
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.
- ^
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'Lost' early color photographs of Sudanese tribes published"
.
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
Studio Gad Archive
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Korinth, Nadia.
"The omega man: Gadalla Gubara and the half-life of Sudanese cinema"
.
Bidoun
. Retrieved
23 May
2020
.
- ^
Krishna Kumar, N.P. (4 January 2017).
"Exploring the modern art movement of Sudan"
.
Cornell University. Africana studies and research center
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Aperture Foundation NY.
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.
Aperture Foundation NY
. Retrieved
12 December
2019
.
- ^
Inverne, Claude (2015).
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.
Elnour
. Retrieved
11 December
2019
.
- ^
Inverne, Claude (2015).
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.
Elnour
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Inverne, Claude (2015).
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.
Elnour
. Retrieved
11 December
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.
- ^
Killingray, David;
Roberts, Andrew
(1989). "An outline history of photography in Africa to ca. 1940".
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.
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.
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.
JSTOR
3171784
.
S2CID
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.
- ^
Sharjah Art Foundation (31 March 2015).
"Modernity and the making of identity in Sudan: Remembering the Sixties and Seventies"
.
e-flux
. Retrieved
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2021
.
- ^
Inverne, Claude (2015).
"Photographers"
.
Elnour
. Retrieved
11 December
2019
.
- ^
Inverne, Claude (2015).
"Abbas Habib Alla Abdellateef Abdalla"
(in English and French)
. Retrieved
5 April
2021
.
- ^
Inverne, Claude (2015).
"FHT-29b"
.
Elnour
. Retrieved
23 December
2019
.
- ^
Inverne, Claude (2015).
"Fouad Hamza Tibin / Mohamed Yahia Issa"
.
Elnour
. Retrieved
11 December
2019
.
- ^
Bernard, Sophie (1 March 2021).
"Discovering Sudanese Photography"
.
Blind magazine
. Retrieved
1 April
2021
.
- ^
Njami, Simon (2005).
VIes rencontres africaines de la photographie - Bamako 2005 un autre monde/another world
(in French and English). Paris: Editions Eric Koehler. pp. 140?155.
ISBN
2-7107-0725-X
.
- ^
de Fays, Didier (2005).
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.
Bidoun
. Retrieved
7 June
2020
.
- ^
Inverne, Claude (2015).
"Gadalla Gubara. Elnour"
. Retrieved
11 December
2019
.
- ^
Ryle, John (30 September 1982).
"Invasion of the body snatchers"
.
John Ryle. Reportage & criticism
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Sontag, Susan (1977).
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978-0-7139-1128-2
.
- ^
Rother, Rainer (1 July 2003).
Leni Riefenstahl: The Seduction of Genius
. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 144.
ISBN
978-1-4411-5901-4
.
- ^
Furcoi, Sorin (5 April 2015).
"Pictures of Sudan's forgotten Nubian pyramids"
.
Aljazeera
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
Pratt, Suzie (1 February 2015).
"What defines an amateur versus a professional photographer?"
.
Digital photography school
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
Bond, Simon (28 April 2018).
"Travel photography ethics: When you shouldn't take that picture"
.
ExpertPhotography
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
"Sudan travel"
.
Lonely Planet
. Retrieved
5 April
2021
.
- ^
"
"Dinka: Legendary cattle keepers of Sudan". African ceremonies"
.
Google Arts & Culture
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
"Dinka group at Pagarau, Southern Sudan. Sebastiao Salgado"
.
Artspace
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
Jack Picone and John Ryle (22 December 2008).
"The Nuba"
.
Granta
. Granta Publications
. Retrieved
17 December
2016
.
- ^
"Sudan | The Nuba"
.
Jack Picone Documentary Photographer
. Retrieved
5 April
2021
.
- ^
UNICEF (April 2018).
"UNICEF Sudan health & nutrition factsheet"
.
UNICEF
. Retrieved
27 November
2019
.
- ^
Hadzialic, Dr Sabahudin (26 October 2019).
"Media ethics in professional journalism: the case of Kevin Carter"
.
Eurasia Review
. Retrieved
5 April
2021
.
- ^
"Mugran foto week 2016: "Modern Times"
"
.
Qantara.de - Dialogue with the Islamic World
. Retrieved
20 March
2021
.
- ^
"Launch of the first phase of the 'Survey on photography training and learning initiatives on the African continent'
"
.
Contemporary and
. Retrieved
10 December
2019
.
- ^
Mann, Laura (2013).
"
'We do our bit in our own space': DAL Group and the development of a curiously Sudanese enclave economy"
.
The Journal of Modern African Studies
.
51
(2): 279?303.
doi
:
10.1017/S0022278X13000207
.
ISSN
0022-278X
.
JSTOR
43303986
.
S2CID
154513426
.
- ^
Al-Shafee, Rogia (28 November 2017).
"Sudan's traditional foods festival: a varied, rich nutritional culture"
.
Sudanow magazine
. Retrieved
7 June
2020
.
- ^
"Home"
.
MTN Sudan
. Retrieved
7 June
2020
.
- ^
"Photo gallery"
.
Zain Sudan
. Retrieved
7 June
2020
.
- ^
See the video by Goethe-Institut Sudan (2015-11-14), especially from minute 1:00 to 2:00 and 3:30 to 5:00
Mugran foto encounter, 2015, presenting creative photography in Khartoum, Sudan
, retrieved
11 December
2019
- ^
Ahmed, Kaamil (14 April 2019).
"Scared, worried and hopeful: A Sudanese photographer's view of the uprising"
.
Middle East Eye
. Retrieved
27 May
2020
.
- ^
"Yasuyoshi Chiba"
.
World Press Photo
. 19 June 2019
. Retrieved
22 April
2020
.
- ^
"World Press Photo 2020: Image from Sudan uprising wins"
.
BBC News
. 16 April 2020
. Retrieved
23 December
2022
.
- ^
"World Press Photo Africa winner: 'This is a victory for all Sudanese'
"
.
Radio Dabanga
. 28 March 2022
. Retrieved
3 April
2022
.
- ^
Gilbert, Sarah (21 October 2022).
"The best of East African photography 2022 ? in pictures"
.
The Guardian
.
ISSN
0261-3077
. Retrieved
22 October
2022
.
- ^
"Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah"
.
Reuters The wider image
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
"Two people killed in Sudan rally over 2019 protest killings"
.
www.aljazeera.com
. Retrieved
30 May
2021
.
- ^
"Salma Alnour"
.
Salma Alnour
. 13 October 2015
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
"
'I'm a woman with a camera ? it surprises people'
"
.
BBC News Africa
. 22 August 2018
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
"Africa's week in pictures: 19-25 July 2019"
.
BBC News
. 26 July 2019
. Retrieved
6 July
2021
.
- ^
Les Rencontres d'Arles.
"Duha Mohammed"
.
www.rencontres-arles.com
. Retrieved
4 June
2021
.
- ^
Opaluwa, Ladi (8 July 2016).
"Photography: a thousand faces of modern Sudan"
.
This is africa
. Retrieved
10 December
2019
.
- ^
James, Estrin (18 March 2019).
"A photographer's quest to discover his Nubian ancestry"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
Kheir, Ala.
"Ala Kheir - about me"
.
Ala Kheir
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
"I want to be visible"
.
Arab Documentary Photography Program
. Retrieved
26 November
2019
.
- ^
"Mugran foto week 2016 ? photo exhibition Modern Times"
.
Goethe-Institut Sudan
. 2016.
Archived
from the original on 24 November 2017
. Retrieved
27 November
2019
.
- ^
Bach, Jean-Nicolas, Fabrice Mongiat et al. 2021.
Soudan 2019 : Annee zero.
Paris: Soleb and Bleu autour publishers, 244 p. with numerous photographs.
ISBN
978-2-918157-44-1
,
ISBN
978-2-918157-47-2
(in French)
- ^
Les Rencontres d'Arles (2021).
"THAWRA ! ???? REVOLUTION !"
.
www.rencontres-arles.com
. Retrieved
6 July
2021
.
- ^
Meffre, Anne-Claire (3 July 2021).
"Prix Madame Figaro Arles 2021 : zoom sur les 8 photographes nominees"
.
Madame Figaro
(in French)
. Retrieved
11 July
2021
.
- ^
"Samb Fatou by Eythar Gubara for Madame Figaro July 1st, 2022 - fashionotography"
. 23 December 2022. Archived from
the original
on 23 December 2022
. Retrieved
23 December
2022
.
- ^
Gaitano, Stella (28 October 2019).
"The Rally of the Sixth of April"
.
The Museum of Modern Art
. Retrieved
21 November
2021
.
- ^
"Postcards from Khartoum"
.
Andre Luetzen
. Retrieved
19 June
2023
.
- ^
"Topics - Sudan Memory"
.
www.sudanmemory.org
. Retrieved
19 April
2022
.
- ^
"Street art Khartoum - Sudan Memory"
.
www.sudanmemory.org
. Retrieved
19 April
2022
.
- ^
Gotto, Francis.
"Guides: Archives and Special Collections: Sudan Archive: Home"
.
libguides.durham.ac.uk
. Retrieved
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2022
.
- ^
"Southern Sudan Photo and Object Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum"
.
southernsudan.prm.ox.ac.uk
. Retrieved
19 April
2022
.
- ^
Elhassan, Dalia (May 2020).
"The Sudanese Gaze: Visual Memory in Post-Independence Sudan"
.
SUNU JOURNAL
. Retrieved
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2022
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Fox, Paul (2018).
"An unprecedented wartime practice: Kodaking the Egyptian Sudan"
.
Media, War & Conflict
.
11
(3): 309?335.
doi
:
10.1177/1750635217710676
.
ISSN
1750-6352
.
S2CID
149437093
.
- Gordon, Robert; Kurzwelly, Jonatan (2018). "Photographs as Sources in African History".
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History
. London: Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.250
.
ISBN
978-0-19-027773-4
.
- Haney, Erin (2010).
Photography and Africa
. London: Reaktion Books.
ISBN
978-1-86189-382-6
.
- Hickerson, Katie J. (January 2023).
"Portraits, Postcards, and Politics: mobilizing Sudanese Visual culture"
(PDF)
.
Durham Middle East Papers - Sir William Luce Fellowship Papers
.
21
. Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies - Durham University.
ISSN
1476-4830
.
- Hogan, Jane (2016).
Life under the Anglo-Egyptian Mandate in Historical Photographs. The Sudan Archives University of Durham.
Hopkins, Peter Gwynvay (2016).
The Kenana handbook of Sudan
. Taylor & Francis. pp. 155?180.
ISBN
978-1-138-99289-4
.
OCLC
1085395385
.
- Iverne, Claude (2012).
SudanPhotoGraphs Vol.1/6
. Paris. p. 64.
ISBN
978-2-9542914-0-6
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- Iverne, Claude (2005).
Fouad Hamza Tibin, Mohamed Yahia Issa
. Paris: Filigranes Editions.
ISBN
2-35046-007-X
.
- Killingray, David; Roberts, Andrew (1989).
"An Outline History of Photography in Africa to ca. 1940"
.
History in Africa
.
16
: 197?208.
doi
:
10.2307/3171784
.
JSTOR
3171784
.
S2CID
161286756
. Retrieved
31 March
2021
.
- Koehler, Jeff.
"Capturing the Light of the Nile, Egypt's First Photographs"
.
Aramco World
(November/December 2015)
. Retrieved
31 March
2021
.
- Riefenstahl, Leni (1974).
The Last of the Nuba
. New York: Harper & Row.
ISBN
978-0-06-013549-2
.
- Schuman, Aaron; Steele-Perkins, Chris (2017).
George Rodger. Nuba and Latuka. The Colour Photographs
. Munich: Prestel.
ISBN
978-3-7913-8322-4
.
- Trout Powell, Eve M. (2021).
"Training slaves for the camera: race and memory in representations of slaves, Cairo and Khartoum, 1882-1892"
. In Lewis, Reina; Taan, Yasmine Nachabe (eds.).
Fashioning the Modern Middle East: Gender, Body, and Nation
. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 45?70.
ISBN
978-1-350-13523-9
.
- Vokes, Richard; Newbury, Darren, eds. (2018).
"Editorial: Photography and African Futures"
.
Visual Studies
.
33
(1): 1?10.
doi
:
10.1080/1472586X.2018.1424988
.
- Ward, John (1905).
Our Sudan - Its pyramids and progress
. J. Murrey. p. 360.
External links
[
edit
]
- Nagy, Eniko.
"Sand in my eyes - Sudanese moments"
.
Sand in my Eyes
.
2012 Photobook, exhibition and short video about mostly rural life in Sudan
- Current photographic stories on Sudan
from
National Geographic magazine
- Historical photographs by Richard Buchta in the online collection of the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna
(with free downloads, enlarged viewing, sharing on social media)
- Photographs of Sudan from the Matson (G. Eric and Edith) Photograph Collection, almost all taken in 1936
- Photographs by G.N. Morhig
, photographer and publisher based in Khartoum (1910?1930) from the
Pitt Rivers Museum
- Historical photographs of Sudan
at
Akkasah
, the Center for Photography at
New York University Abu Dhabi
- A selection of photographs from the Sudan Historical Photography Archive, held by Khartoum University
- Claude Iverne: Bilad es Sudan, a 2017 exhibition of images
- Claude Iverne, Alice Franck. Khartoum, Capitale en Mutation
(in French)
- FABA Vintage: Portraits from Sudan, 1950s?1970s
- A history of the Sudans ? in pictures since independence
- The many faces of modern Sudan - in pictures
, The Guardian, 7 July 2016
- Many Rivers, One Nile
video about Mugran Foto Week 2014 on
YouTube
- City in Change
video about Mugran photo exhibition 2015 on YouTube
- Mugran Foto Encounter, documentary video about exhibitions of creative photography
on YouTube
- Photo story on
Youth of today in Sudan
by Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah, published by
Reuters
in 2014
Photography of Africa
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