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People Poses Places

Exhibition, Studio
8 Nov 2014 - 11 Jan 2015
Date
8 Nov 2014 - 11 Jan 2015
Location
Noorderlicht | Huis van de Fotografie, Akerkhof 12, Groningen

With People Poses Places Andrea Stultiens introduces the second part of a series of editions in which she presents a collection of historical Ugandan photography. The work of Musa Katuramu (1913 – 1986) is featured in People Poses Places; the majority of his archive will be on display in the Noorderlicht Photo Gallery.

With the extraordinary work of Musa Katurama in People Poses Places, and the other editions in the series, the photographer, and editor/curator Andrea Stultiens endeavours to diversify the visual representation of Africa in general and Uganda in particular.

From the mid-1930s, carpenter and teacher Musa Katuramu took portraits of the people in his community over a period of several decades using a basic camera. He didn’t have a studio, so this was created on site. He also had few opportunities to influence the image due to the limitations of his camera, but well understood the importance of ensuring that the sun was kept behind his back. Within, and perhaps even thanks to, these limitations Musa Katuramu created a poignant collection of photographs comprising 1,500 negatives and 750 prints, which were carefully preserved by his son Jerry Bagonza. We see people presenting themselves to those familiar to them; unusual for the period and the region in which the photographs were taken.

Andrea Stultiens (Netherlands, 1974) is not only a photographer, but collects related materials and reflects – through personal and found images and texts – upon the manner in which we visually portray ourselves and the other. Since 2007, Stultiens has mainly worked in Africa, in particular in Uganda. In 2011, she initiated the platform History In Progress Uganda which collects and shares historical photographs from and about Uganda to provide them with a context, in an attempt to nuance the country’s historiography. ‘People Poses Places’ forms part of the doctoral research for PhDArts in Leiden. She also works as a tutor at the Minerva Art Academy and as a researcher in the Academy’s knowledge centre and research group PRICCAPractice.

On display