In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960.

In and Out of Focus Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960 National Museum of African Art Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. December 6, 2002-March 16, 2003

"In and Out of Focus" reminded us that photography simultaneously brings us both closer to and further from reality. While many exhibitions use photographs as uncontested "documents," "In and Out of Focus" looked at photographs in their own right, as objects originating within specific historical, political, and cultural contexts. It presented one of photography's most complicated stories, Central Africa during the colonial era. The exhibition highlighted collections at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art and the NMAfA's Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archive, with additional photographs from several private collections in Belgium. It was curated by Christraud Geary, a pioneer in the field of African photography.

Organized in the form of small case studies presented in interconnecting rooms, the exhibition illustrated the intricate web of relationships that inform photographic meaning. "African People Through the Eyes of Western Photographers" and "Official Images" provided the basic information for understanding colonial photography from a contemporary perspective, and prepared the viewer for the more specific histories and in depth narratives that followed. Along with explaining how photographic conventions reflected colonial beliefs about Africans, they included images used by Leopold II's opponents to reveal the atrocities of the Belgian king in the Congo Free State. Thus, photography was a double-edged sword, providing both support for and resistance to colonial power.

"The Image World of Casimir Zagourski" presented new research on the prolific career of this Polish photographer, who was active in the Congo in the time between the two World Wars. While operating a studio in Leopoldville, he also documented indigenous cultural life, a pursuit that resulted in his famous photo album, "Vanishing Africa" (ca. 1927-36). Zagourski's life history reveals the complicated relationship between photographers and the colonial government.

The final segment of the exhibition constituted a critical departure from other histories of colonial photography by emphasizing African responses. "African Encounters with Photography" and "Photographers and Their African Patrons" highlighted the active role of Africans as patrons and subjects as well as operators of photographic studios. The section "Kuba, Tutsi, and Mangbetu" documented an extended history of ethnic groups "performing themselves" by creating photographic opportunities for Western photographers. Far from being passive participants in this process, they were constructing how they wanted to be seen.

Overall, these individual narratives were insightfully blended together, resulting in an extremely coherent though complex and conceptually strong exhibition. Based on detailed historical research, "In and Out of Focus" broadened our understanding of not only photography but also the political and cultural history of the Belgian Congo. Moreover, it made a significant contribution toward a growing trend in scholarship that recognizes the importance of individual photographers and the circumstances of specific colonial regimes. While colonial photography across the African continent may appear similar because of overarching influences, localized histories dramatically enhance our interpretation of these images. In other words, the history of photography in Africa can no longer stand as a singular history.

The unusually wide spectrum of images made "In and Out of Focus" a valuable experience for both the general public and the specialist. These included conventional photographs, stamps, postcards, photo albums, illustrated books, magazines, posters, and trade cards. The exhibition established, once and for all, the significance of dealing not only with images that can be read as texts but, more importantly, with photographic images as objects--each with its own history of production, use, and distribution. This approach emphasizes the complexity of the photographic images instead of subsuming them under broad and increasingly less useful--didactic categories.

While the historical framework of the exhibition ended at 1960 (when Congo gained its independence), the curatorial text implicitly prompted viewers to recognize the ongoing effects of these forms of visualization. In fact, "In and Out of Focus" reflected numerous concerns about the meaning of these images in a contemporary context. Scholarly dialogues about the nature of archives have fueled many interesting debates about ethnographic images, who uses them, and what they mean now and have meant in the past. As an institution with significant archival holdings, the National Museum of African Art has provided an intriguing forum for these issues, which have recently been discussed in relation to contemporary art exhibitions rather than collections emerging directly from the archive.

In this exhibition, the ethnographic image fluctuated between art and document. The display was punctuated by a stunning sequence of large-format photographs that loomed high in the gallery space, actually above the wall partitions of the installation. Their placement and the scale produced an interesting dialogue with the imagery presented more conventionally on the gallery walls. For example, this approach highlighted the comparative lifelessness of the postcards. Postcards present a particular problem in terms of display, as they are relatively small and were never intended for exhibition. The complexity of the imagery and the textual component are additional complications. Placing postcards on a gallery wall removes their intimacy and diminishes their visual effect. Grouping them within matted picture frames was not an entirely effective solution.

An attention to aesthetics can be easily lost in the story of ethnographic imagery, which is often shrouded in ideological messages. Explanatory text was strategically placed (not for every object) so that it was not a cumbersome barrier: it actually encouraged the viewer to explore the photograph. This exhibition made it clear that aesthetics are critical to photographic meaning, not separate from ideological significance.

"In and Out of Focus" and its corresponding catalogue represent a benchmark in the study of ethnographic and colonial photography, offering sound historical analysis and critical issues that resonate well beyond the colonial era. The project reflects the culmination of Geary's achievements during her tenure as curator of the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives and her astuteness in gauging the significance of images and the complex encounters that photography often represents.

The catalogue In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960 (128 pp., 151 photos, $30 softcover), by Christraud M. Geary with an essay by Krzysztof Pluskota, is published by the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.