In Community
In Community
Photographs by Maheder Haileselassie, Gordwin Odhiambo, and Nelly Ating, previously featured on Tender Photo.
All three photographers use “community” to describe the reach of their ethos: “I first went to Awramba in 2016 and was fascinated by how the community managed to build a system for itself,” notes Maheder Haileselassie. “Being able to tell everyday stories from my own community and shine a light on the beautiful things happening there is another opportunity to interact,” Gordwin Odhiambo writes. According to Nelly Ating, “In 2017, I was invited by a colleague at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, to visit a small community of internally displaced persons in Yokossala, near the border of Cameroon.”
In essence, a distinction is being made between here and elsewhere—between a photographer who considers the place where he was “born and bred,” and his counterparts who visit for a short time, and for a specific purpose. There might be no material consequence to differentiating between the visitor and resident, at least in the visible attributes of the photographs. All three pictures, in fact, show the mid-activity expressiveness of hands, whether in conversation or supplication or hand-washing.
The argument could be, then, that a photograph of a community is most eloquent when photographers speak of being “here,” when they get so close as to portray individuals in the ordinary course of a day.
Getting close, no doubts, will spur a set of ethical concerns. How does Ating question her motives as she takes photographs of internally displaced persons? What fascination attracts Haileselassie to a community that takes care of its older people, when the same cannot be said for other parts of Ethiopia? What is the degree of rapport Odhiambo has to initiate in order to deepen his awareness of a place otherwise familiar to him?
These questions are not rhetorical; documentary photography is tasked with identifying the dynamic set of factors that makes the photograph as much a document as an interaction. •••
This is the #3 edition of CONCORDANCE, a series of micro-essays I’m writing in response to sequences of photographs previously featured on the newsletter. (See #1, and #2) These notes, inspired by CORRESPONDENCES, will point to affinities in style, mood, or theme between the tendered photos. The series will run for an initial period of 2 months (June 3—July 29).
TENDER PHOTO is a bi-weekly newsletter on African photography, published Wednesdays and Saturdays. See the archive for more features on early to mid-career photographers, or submit your work. If this newsletter was shared with you, consider subscribing, or forward to a friend. Please whitelist the newsletter to ensure you never miss it.