Hassan Hajjaj
Ha Hna 2000/1421
Photograph, digital C -print on paper, mounted on aluminium, and tomato tins
Rider in Pink 2000/1421
Photograph, digital C -print on paper, mounted on aluminium, and halal meat tins
White Dotted Stance 2002/1423
Photograph, digital C -print on paper, mounted on aluminium, and tea boxes
In this series, Hajjaj photographs a community of women he calls the Kesh Angels (named after the Hells Angels and the city’s motorbike culture). In their vivid djellabas and veils, his portraits portray proud and independent Muslim women.Drawing inspiration from the patterns of Islamic decorative arts, Hajjaj places his pictures inside custom frames inset with tin cans and bottles.
Hajjaj explains, ’I wanted to show the world what I saw of the country and its people – the energy, the attitude; the inventiveness and glamour of street fashion; the fantastic graphics on everyday objects and products; people’s happy outlook and strength of character.’*
The second chapter of the exhibition looks at counter histories. Here, our focus turns to the camera’s ability to challenge the colonial gaze and produce alternative images of the past.
In the 19th century, photography became a valuable tool for colonial powers. Ethnographic images of African peoples and landscapes were distributed through postcards and magazines. They ‘othered’ subjects and created racist stereotypes that legitimised the mission of empire.
The works in the following rooms confront these fictions. They honour a long history of studio portraiture that gives agency to African photographers and their sitters, interrogate colonial archives and uncover hidden histories.
‘Family Portraits’ explores Africa’s rich studio culture, which began in the 1840s in many coastal cities. Photography studios gave communities greater agency over their appearance and during the period of independence, they became joyous spaces for the projection and performance of new identities. These photographs range from formal 19th-century portraits engaging with Victorian respectability politics, to intimate snapshots that expand the concept of the family photo album. Together, these photographers celebrate the family portrait as a site of co-production and self-representation.*
From the exhibition
A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography
(July 2023 – January 2024)
A celebration of the varied landscape of contemporary African photography today
Bringing together a group of artists from different generations, this exhibition will address how photography, film, audio, and more have been used to reimagine Africa’s diverse cultures and historical narratives.
Moving beyond a traditional photography exhibition, the show seeks to explore the many ways images travel across histories and geographies. Using themes of spirituality, identity, urbanism and climate emergency, the exhibition will guide the viewer through dream-like utopias and bustling cityscapes viewed from the artists’ perspectives.
The exhibition follows artists across the many landscapes, borders and time zones of Africa to reveal how photography allows the past and the future to co-exist in powerful and transformative ways.
...A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography brings together 36 artists who use photography to reimagine Africa’s place in the world. It is inspired by the continent’s rich cultural traditions, as well as present-day social and political realities. Drawing on the theories of Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe (born 1957), the exhibition invites us to imagine ‘a world in common’. To do this, Mbembe claims, we must ‘think the world from Africa’. A World in Common explores Africa’s past, present and future to create a more expansive and inclusive narrative of humanity. It suggests that to conceive ‘a world in common’ is to imagine a future of possibility.
There is no single, definitive history of Africa. It is a continent of multiple, interconnected realities. Pushing the boundaries of photography and film, the artists in A World in Common confront reductive representations of African peoples and cultures. They address photography’s past and embrace its potential to reframe the present and shape tomorrow.
The exhibition is divided into three chapters: Identity and Tradition, Counter Histories and Imagined Futures. The first chapter is rooted in ancient African cultures and traditions which have survived periods of struggle and resistance. Inspired by Pan-African liberation movements, the second chapter looks at photography’s ability to produce counter histories - archival practices and the agency of photographer and subject are brought into focus. The third chapter explores the impact of globalisation and the climate emergency. Here, artists imagine a shared future informed by common realities. A World in Common creates space for exchange and discovery, inviting us to imagine new ways of inhabiting the earth.
[*Tate Modern]
Taken in Tate Modern
