What started out as a personal dive into her own history turned into an amazing archive of African photography. Adopted as a child and of mixed race, Catherine McKinley, was always seeking answers about her identity. As part of her research, she began collecting vintage photographs that began to weave incredible stories, which she has now assembled in The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women. It weaves together historical photos and McKinley’s own research and musings – offers an encapsulation of, and a window into, the rich history of West African photography – and the women who were at the centre of the frame. The book also includes an introduction by the novelist Edwidge Danticat and a foreword by the writer Jaqueline Woodson. Photo collages by Frida Orupabo, a Norwegian-Nigerian artist, add a layer of subtext to the images.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
More Stories
The Marshall Nature Reserve Gives a Different Glimpse of the Sudanese Capital
The Journey of Moving Tanzanians Around
Correcting Kinshasa’s Commodity Crisis
Can African Leaders Rate Themselves?
First Black African to Win Grand Tour Stage
Financing Dangote’s Fertiliser Dream Tougher than Expected
This is a Moment for the Women of Kenya
US Support in Somalia Couldn’t Have Come at a Better Time
A Symbol of Sudan’s Resistance
Families of Trapped Miners in Limbo
Google Translate Announces an Addition of 10 Languages Spoken in Africa
All Four Tourists Reported Missing in the Fish River Canyon have been Accounted For