Author Description

The moment of capturing an image can be understood as a solidifying of the streams of consciousness which occur in the photographer's mind in that decisive moment: the photograph then becomes the place of convergence of all conceptual, aesthetic and cultural ideas and associations out of which the impetus to capture arose. The notion of the stream of consciousness is intrinsically linked to the notion of depth of sight: that is, the idea that sight can reach outside of itself and call onto the other senses. Photography, as a vector for such engaged vision, acts as a prosthesis for our impoverished sight. The impoverished nature of sight is of particular relevance in the African context, where photography has--in the hands of Western photographers--predominantly served to create visual taxonomy and stereotypes, thus un-training the eye, banishing it to shallow realms.