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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Portraits of modernity: fashioning selves in Dakarois popular photography |
Author: | Mustafa, Hudita Nura |
Year: | 2005 |
Periodical: | Politique africaine |
Issue: | 100 |
Pages: | 231-247 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Senegal |
Subjects: | photography portraits social status urban women |
Abstract: | Photographic collections are commonplace in contemporary households in Dakar (Senegal). Linked to the practice of 'sańse', whereby Senegalese women craft their social personae, they are an important form of cultural capital. Dakarois women claim their proper place in the hierarchy of elegance with portraits. This article examines the creation and distribution of popular photographic portraiture in Dakar. It begins by sketching the history of photography in Senegal from the colonial era, when Europeans used the camera to catalogue ethnic types, up to the postcolonial present, when Africans use the same technology to depict their own culture of distinction. It shows a culture of sartorial display in which the photograph is both an image of a performance and an object with its own trajectory. This is most evident in ceremonial events, personal collections, and fashion circuits. Notes, ref,, sum. in English (p. 326) and French (p. 328). [ASC Leiden abstract] |