Mark Sealy: Decolonising The Camera

Decolonising the Camera examines how Western photographic practice has been used as a tool for creating Eurocentric and violent visual regimes, and demands that we recognise and disrupt the ingrained racist ideologies that have tainted photography since its inception in 1839.

It examines the racial politics at work within photography, in the context of heated discussions around race and representation, the legacies of colonialism, and the
importance of decolonising the university. Sealy analyses a series of images within and against the violent political reality of Western imperialism, and aims to extract new meanings and develop new ways of seeing that bring the Other into focus.

The book demonstrates that if we do not recognise the historical and political conjunctures of racial politics at work within photography, and their effects on those that have been culturally erased, made invisible or less than human by such images, then we remain hemmed within established orthodoxies of colonial thought concerning the racialised body, the subaltern and the politics of human recognition.

With detailed analyses of photographs – included in an insert – by Alice Seeley Harris, Joy Gregory, Rotimi Fani-Kayode and others, and spanning more than 100 years of photographic history, Decolonising the Camera contains vital visual and written material for readers interested in photography, race, human rights and the effects of colonial violence.

Title: Decolonising The Camera
Publisher: Lawrence & Wishart, 2019
Author: Mark Sealy
Photographer: Alice Seeley Harris, Joy Gregory, Rotimi Fani-Kayode
Graphic Design: River Design
Format: Softcover
Size: 21.5 x 14 cm, 267 pages
ISBN: 9781912064755
Edition: -