Overview

This book is the first to question both why and how the colonialist mythologies represented by the work of photographer Eliot Elisofon persist. It documents and discusses a heterogeneous practice of American coloniality of power as it explores Elisofon’s career as war photographer-correspondent and staff photographer for LIFE, filmmaker, author, artist, and collector of “primitive art” and sculpture. It focuses on three areas: Elisofon’s narcissism, voyeurism, and sexism; his involvement in the homogenizing of Western social orders and colonial legacies; and his enthused mission of “sending home” a mass of still-life photographs, annexed African artifacts, and assumed vintage knowledge. The book does not challenge his artistic merit or his fascinating personality; what it does question is his production and imagining of “difference.” As the text travels from World War II to colonialism, postcolonialism, and the Cold War, from Casablanca to Leopoldville (Kinshasa), it proves to be a necessarily strenuous and provocative trip.

Full Product Details

Author:   Raoul J. Granqvist
Publisher:   Michigan State University Press
Imprint:   Michigan State University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.590kg
ISBN:  

9781611862362

ISBN 10:   1611862361
Pages:   337
Publication Date:   30 April 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Contents Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1. En Route from Scandinavia to Africa, 1942–1944: On Becoming a Trickster with a Hungry Camera and a Loud Mouth Chapter 2. Colonial Travel and Colonial Habits: Early Years, Elisofon in Africa, 1947 and 1951 Chapter 3. African Women Walk, African Men Sit, African Children Are: Gender as Difference, Exclusion, Segregation, and Passage Chapter 4. From Colony to Colonized: Elisofon Fashioning Nigeria Chapter 5. Elisofon’s and LIFE’s Literary Africa: White Mythologies, Racism, and Cold War Politics Chapter 6. The American Broadcasting Company’s Africa, 1966–1967: A Shock of Change and an Updated Safari Chapter 7. The Cold War Affinity between Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko and the United States’ Eliot Elisofon Chapter 8. The Politics of the Black African Heritage Series, 1970–1972 Chapter 9. Elisofon Collecting Artifacts and Elisofon Curated: Colonialist Power Conclusion Appendix. LIFE Photo Essays by or with Eliot Elisofon Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews

Based not least on five years of extensive onsite research, Granqvist has produced a study of Elisofon s life s work that is iconoclastic and intellectually challenging. Best, his reading of Elisofon s photography demands that we reassess our Western perspectives on both the Cold War in Europe and, most pertinently, the legacy of colonialism in Africa. A vigorous, exhaustive, and demanding study. <b>John A. Stotesbury, </b> Fellow of the English Association, and former Postcolonial Literary Studies Professor, University of Eastern Finland

Based not least on five years of extensive onsite research, Granqvist has produced a study of Elisofon's life's work that is iconoclastic and intellectually challenging. Best, his reading of Elisofon's photography demands that we reassess our Western perspectives on both the Cold War in Europe and, most pertinently, the legacy of colonialism in Africa. A vigorous, exhaustive, and demanding study. --John A. Stotesbury, Fellow of the English Association, and former Postcolonial Literary Studies Professor, University of Eastern Finland

Author Information

Raoul J. Granqvist is Professor Emeritus of English at the Department of Language Studies, Umeå University.

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