From a Real Body, Which Was There, Proceed Radiations Which Ultimately Touch Me, Who Am Here
An Encounter with a Missionary Portrait of a Precolonial Akan Court Official
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2162816 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Pamela Jenkins (0000-0002-9854-9450, corresponding author), Paul Jenkins (0000-0002-8657-3605) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 275-292 |
| Publication date | 2009-07-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Visual Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0894-9468 • E-ISSN: 1545-5920 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/08949460903004938 |
| OpenAlex | W1995981847 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 11 |
Following Barthes' striking insights, this essay attempts an encounter with a portrait of an Akan court official on the Gold Coast taken in about 1890. The missionary photographer is given his due in the analysis, but Barthes is taken as urging us to take the signals from the photographed “object” seriously when analyzing portraits, and as having liberated us to use the complex of visual perceptions which people with long experience in a region call up when they encounter someone unknown to them. This train of thought allows us to see the official as a representative of a functioning political community with reforming intentions and an ability to absorb many of the impulses a resident Mission brought into the area. The essay is also a by-product of the effort which has been put into getting the main body of historical photographs in the Basel Mission archive catalogued to a satisfactory degree of local precision, to serve the interest in African History among the Mission's African partners, and the new Centre for African Studies at the University of Basel
Art · Art history · Epistemology · Media studies · Object (grammar · Perception · Political science · Politics · Portrait · Product (mathematics · Sociology · Visual arts · African history and culture studies · Computer Science · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Philosophy
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A Provisional Survey of nineteenth century Photography on the Gold Coast and in Ashanti
The Earliest Generation of Missionary Photographers in West Africa and the Portrayal of Indigenous People and Culture
Four Years in Asante
Lela in Bali
Images from Bamum
Material traces of religious change in africa, asia and latin america
Images from Bamum
One hundred and fifty years of Christianity in a Ghanaian town
Rank and class among the Asante and Fante in the nineteenth century
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,13 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2013 (3) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |