Dr David Zeitlyn, University of Kent
2006 award - major research award
£36,838 for 15 months
The economic basis for professional black and white photography in Cameroon disappeared in 1998 with the introduction of new identity cards. They were issued with instant photographs, removing the need for 'passport photographs'. These had been the main work of rural photographers who could process and print the film without needing access to electricity. A small supporting industry of photographers, such as have been celebrated in exhibitions e.g. of the work of Seidou Keita, has effectively been destroyed by computerisation of the identity cards and the arrival of cheaper colour 35mm processing in the cities.
One such studio photographer is Jacques Touselle, with a collection of some 20,000 negatives, but who is aging and is not in the best of health. He can recognise many of the people in the photographs, enabling future research to be undertaken, thus greatly enhancing the importance of the archive.
The collection is vulnerable: physically it is stored in a back room of the studio and the roof is leaking - there are signs of deterioration and damage, with some negatives stuck together.
African black and white photography has been recognised as important through some celebrated exhibitions and publications (e.g. of Sidibé, Augustt and Keita) but this has not translated into action to preserve the work of other photographers. Few collections of West African photography have been archived and none are available for study from Cameroon. The archives will enable research in, for example, changing aesthetics, fashions and as the basis for family history research.
Digital SLRs will be used to copy the negatives. Since the negatives are 120 format the images will be of sufficiently high quality to be useful for research purposes. The archives will be housed at the National Archives in Yaoundé, with further copies available for study at the British Council Library in Cameroon and in two Cameroonian Universities: The University of Dschang (the nearest University to the location of the photographer) and the University of Ngaoundéré.
