A new exhibit at Li-Space in Beijing aims to refashion the traditional visual impression of Africa – that of famine, war and poverty – through images that show a continent of culture, hope, imagination and dreams.
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China, which has a growing business presence in Africa, seemed an important place to display the photographs, said Awam Amkpa, the exhibition’s curator, who described the images in the show as an illustration of “how Africans want to be seen rather than how they are forced to be seen.”
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The black-and-white portraits present a fantasy world in which their subjects aspired to live, said Mr. Amkpa, one that was different from the colonial images of Africans. A section of the exhibition is dedicated to a set of images from the 1900s, a time when, according to the curator, Africans were the objects of photos rather than the subjects of photos. More here.